Near Protocol's Price Surges 15% as Cross-Chain Volume Tops $19B
Near Protocol's (NEAR) price has risen by 15% over the past 24 hours, reaching $2.80 on May 25. This surge marks a continuation of the token's 30-day rally, which has seen its price increase approximately 90%. The move is attributed to renewed investor interest in tokens linked to AI infrastructure and cross-chain applications.
The network's cross-chain transaction product, NEAR Intents, has been central to this renewed attention. This system enables users to specify a desired outcome, such as swapping USDC on Ethereum for SOL on Solana, while third-party solvers execute the transaction in the background.
According to DefiLlama data, NEAR Intents has processed over $19 billion in cumulative volume and generated approximately $32 million in fees. This has drawn attention to the protocol after months of limited price activity.
Institutional demand for NEAR has also grown, with the Bitwise NEAR Staking exchange-traded product (ETP) listed in Europe reaching around $40 million in assets under management and recording $7 million in inflows in a single week. Investors are also looking ahead to a network upgrade scheduled for June 2026, which introduces dynamic resharding.