NEAR Protocol Goes Private: Confidential Shards Shield Perpetual Futures Trades

NEAR Protocol has introduced confidential shards to make all perpetual futures trades private by default. This update, launched on September 17, uses a trusted execution environment to separate public accounts from trading activity.

The integration with Hyperliquid provides access to over 50 markets and leverage up to 40x, benefiting from $240 billion in recent trading volume.

Following the update, NEAR's token price surged up to 45%, and trading volume jumped 120%, highlighting strong market interest in privacy-focused trading solutions.