NEAR's Price Surge Driven by Intents Fees and SwapKit

NEAR's price nearly doubled over the past week, driven by its growing reputation as a hub for privacy and AI applications. However, this surge in value is not solely due to the project's own growth, but rather to Intents transaction fees, which now account for roughly 85% of NEAR REV.

Before February 2026, NEAR simply routed Intents volume without taking a cut, but since then, it has been collecting a share of these fees. This change has led to a significant increase in revenue, with NEAR surging 350% since the fee switch was activated.

Despite this growth, native on-chain activity has decreased, with Relay-sponsored (delegated) transactions accounting for only 12% of NEAR's trading volume in Q1 2026. These consumer-grade applications were previously subsidized by gas fees, but now that subsidy is gone.

The real money maker behind Intents is swaps, and SwapKit, a cross-chain swap SDK embedded in wallets like Ledger Live, BitPay, and Trust Wallet, is the largest channel, accounting for 35% of Intents volume but generating 61% of fees. However, NEAR cannot see which specific wallet the traffic originates from, as SwapKit routes NEAR Intents as one of four interchangeable suppliers.

NEAR's position must be fought over in every single quote, leaving it blind to where flow is actually drifting. The project also benefits from the privacy narrative, with Zcash playing a significant role in this growth, but even this is not entirely driven by NEAR's own efforts.