NEAR Surges 24% as AI Utility Expansion Ignites Price Rally

NEAR's price surged by 24.52% after its AI utility expanded across 43 models, becoming the top-performing AI crypto token. The Confidential Intents ecosystem saw increased activity, with the confidential TVL surpassing $70 million and triggering a milestone snapshot under the incentive program.

The protocol's Confidential Intents supported private execution across over 30 connected blockchains, while also linking with autonomous-agent infrastructure for asset transfers and cross-chain payments. Additionally, staking-based computing credits covering 43 AI models were introduced, further expanding NEAR's AI utility.

Whale orders and aggressive spot buying contributed to the price increase, with CryptoQuant's Spot Average Order Size indicating larger transactions. The Taker Buy Dominant reading on the 90-day Spot Taker CVD also suggested active demand accompanied these trades.

The derivatives market saw a significant expansion, with Open Interest rising by 39.54% to $924.66 million and Derivatives Volume surging by 101.79% to $1.85 billion. This could support the continuation of NEAR's price uptrend.