NEAR Protocol Gains AI Momentum as Grayscale Highlights Agentic Commerce
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) is gaining traction in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space, thanks to a recent report by Grayscale. The report, shared on October 2nd, highlighted NEAR's ambitions in agentic commerce, where self-directed AI agents could request work, pay for services, and interact with applications. The research also outlined potential blockchain uses across programmable payments, identity management, private computing, and transaction records. NEAR’s Chain Abstraction and intent-based execution could simplify transactions across different blockchains.
Adding credibility to NEAR’s AI ambitions is the fact that co-founder Illia Polosukhin co-authored the research introducing the Transformer architecture, a key component in many AI systems. However, the long-term success of NEAR will depend on whether AI agents actually use the network. NEAR saw an impressive 183% gain in September, compared to a 54% rise in Grayscale’s AI crypto sector. While growing interest could attract more capital, sustained agent activity will be crucial for backing this interest.
Meanwhile, NEAR users are facing an immediate change as MyNearWallet plans to sunset on October 31st. Users are being directed toward alternatives like Meteor Wallet and near.com. The migration process, which includes guided tools for August and September, followed by reduced functionality from October, could create temporary disruptions. Successful migration would reinforce NEAR’s ecosystem and AI growth story, while disruptions could detract from it.
NEAR’s price action is also under scrutiny after its strong September rally. The token climbed above $5 after breaking out of its summer trading range and was trading near $5.25 at press time. Rising trading volume supports the bullish view, but resistance near $5.39, $5.44 limits further advances. A decisive close above this resistance could push NEAR toward $5.56 and $6.00, while losing $5.13 support could trigger a deeper reset toward $4.70. Sustained AI activity and capital flows will be essential to support the rally beyond speculation.