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NEAR Price Rally: 9% Surge Recaptures Key Level, Records 160% TVL Growth In Q1

Decentralized application (dApp) platform Near Protocol exhibited notable growth in key metrics during the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, driving its native token NEAR to reclaim a crucial key level and paving the way for a potential retest of its all-time high (ATH) from January 2022. 

According to a recent report by Messari, NEAR experienced significant increases in market capitalization, revenue, active addresses, and Total Value Locked (TVL), solidifying its position among the top players in the cryptocurrency market.

NEAR Outperforms Bitcoin And Ethereum

In Q1 2024, NEAR’s circulating market cap surged to $7.2 billion, marking a 94% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase. The fully diluted market cap also witnessed substantial growth, reaching $8.2 billion, representing a 91% QoQ increase. These numbers propelled NEAR to secure a spot among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. 

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Notably, NEAR outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which recorded QoQ growth rates of 69% and 53%, respectively. Additionally, NEAR’s revenue, derived from network transaction fees, witnessed an 82% QoQ increase, reaching $1.9 million. 

NEAR continued its address growth trend in Q1 2024, with average daily active addresses reaching 1.2 million, representing a robust 42% QoQ increase. 

The network also witnessed a surge in daily new addresses, totaling 236,000 (a 37% QoQ increase), and surpassed the milestone of 100 million total accounts. 

According to Messari, contributions from established protocols like KAIKAINOW, Sweat, and Playember and the adoption of HOT Wallet, averaging over 350,000 daily active addresses in March and nearly 3 million total wallets, drove this expansion.

Stablecoin Market Cap Soars In Q1

Per the report, the protocol experienced a sustained increase in transaction activity throughout Q1 2024, with daily transactions reaching 4.3 million, representing a 78% QoQ increase and a 538% increase over the last six months. 

Similarly, NEAR’s TVL witnessed substantial growth, ending the quarter at $335 million, a 163% increase from the previous quarter and a 547% increase over the last six months. 

NEAR

Furthermore, NEAR’s decentralized exchange (DEX) volume experienced a notable surge, with an average daily volume of $8 million, representing a 95% QoQ increase. Ref Finance emerged as the leading DEX on the protocol, with $6 million daily volume, surpassing Orderly Network.

Lastly, NEAR observed a significant increase in its stablecoin market cap during Q1 2024, soaring 176% QoQ to $214 million. Notably, USDT experienced a significant surge, with its market cap increasing by 1,155% QoQ, reaching $88 million. 

Outperforming Top 20 Cryptocurrencies

Regarding price action, NEAR Protocol’s native token has exhibited strong performance, surpassing the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the market with a 9.4% uptrend in the past seven days. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has experienced a minor 1.5% price correction over the past 24 hours.

This positive trend has enabled NEAR to reclaim the significant $7.40 price level, which is important for bullish investors. 

Looking ahead, the $7.60 mark may present a potential resistance level for the token, serving as a crucial barrier to monitoring. It could pave the way for a retest of the $8 mark, signaling further upward momentum if successfully breached.

Conversely, the $6.80 mark has demonstrated its significance as a key support level. It was previously tested over the weekend and effectively prevented a more significant price decline. 

Despite the optimistic outlook, it is important to note that the token remains down by over 64% from its all-time high of $20.4, reached in 2022.

NEAR

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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NEAR Protocol Soars 7.3%, Is It Poised To Go Higher?

As the crypto industry navigates the waves of this bull run, projects like NEAR Protocol (NEAR) are edging forward with new partnerships and developments. NEAR’s remarkable performance has crypto analysts considering that the toke is getting underway for a massive surge.

Is NEAR Protocol A “Market Leader”?

At the beginning of the week, crypto analyst World of Charts recognized a bullish flag pattern formed on NEAR’s monthly chart. According to the analyst, a successful breakout could be followed by a 60-65% bullish wave in the coming days.

On Thursday, NEAR tested the $7.00 resistance level, reaching above the $7.50 mark before retracing as the day ended.

NEAR Protocol, crypto

Affirming his previous forecast, the analyst stated that if the token successfully holds above the breakout level, investors could expect the price to move towards $14-$15. Since then, the token has remained above the $7.00 mark, hovering between $7.3-$7.1.

Another crypto analyst has been following NEAR’s performance this week similarly. According to Bluntz, the token “has been one of the strongest movers from the lows and will probably be one of the first to make fresh highs.”

Moreover, he considers NEAR “one of the better performers” in the top 20 cryptocurrencies. Previously, the trader displayed a chart identifying an ABC zigzag pattern followed by a still-forming impulse wave pattern.

NEAR; crypto analyst

As NEAR broke out of the $7,00 resistance, the analyst reaffirmed his prediction for the token’s movements, considering it “a market leader right now.”

Bluntz added that the token kept “plodding along making fresh highs while everything else has stalled out and continued accumulating.”

Network Expansion And Price Surge

The NEAR Protocol is a Layer-1 “user-friendly and carbon-neutral” blockchain focused on performance, security, and scalability. According to its team, the “blockchain for everyone” was built with “usability in mind.”

NEAR’s total value locked (TVL) of $309 million makes it the 16th largest blockchain by this metric. Notably, the network has doubled its TVL since Q4 2023, when it sat in the 25th spot with $128 million.

The protocol collaborates with other projects constantly to continue “expanding financial horizons.” Projects like NodeKit and TrueZK have recently integrated NEAR’s solution designed for Ethereum rollups, NEAR DA.

Similarly, on Thursday, it announced its partnership with Colombian fintech Lulo X and Peersyst Technology “to redefine the parameters of digital finance.” These collaborations have been seemingly well-received by the NEAR community.

Despite being down by 6.25% in the monthly time frame and 65% below its all-time high (ATH) of $20,44 set in January 2022, the blockchain’s token has shown a remarkable performance during this bull run. In the last three months, NEAR has soared over 146%.

Moreover, the token’s daily trading volume has increased by 6.5% in the past day, with over $800 million traded. Likewise, its market capitalization has risen 5% during the same timeframe, making it the 17th biggest cryptocurrency by this metric.

As of this writing, NEAR is trading at $7.2, representing a 7.3% jump in the last 24 hours and a 26% rise in the past week.

NEAR, NEARUSDT, crypto

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NEAR Protocol’s Expansion: Q4 2023 Shows 1,250% Rise In Daily Active Addresses

NEAR Protocol, the Blockchain Operating System (BOS), experienced significant growth in key metrics during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023. The protocol’s native token, NEAR, recorded a remarkable 16% year-to-date growth and witnessed a surge in adoption. 

Circulating Market Cap Soars 245%

According to a Messari report, the entire crypto market cap increased in Q4 2023, largely driven by the anticipation surrounding the introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). 

NEAR actively participated in the overall market rally and achieved additional gains due to its heightened network activity and significant announcements. As a result, NEAR’s circulating market cap for the end of 2023 reached $3.7 billion, marking a 245% increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and a 246% increase year-on-year (YoY). 

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Furthermore, NEAR’s fully diluted market cap reached $4.3 billion. The protocol’s market cap ranking also soared, climbing 10 places to reach approximately 30th by the end of 2023.

In Q4 2023, NEAR’s revenue grew substantially, primarily generated from network transaction fees, reaching $750,000. The increase in revenue was attributed to the heightened activity generated by projects such as KAIKAINOW and NEAR Inscriptions. 

During the Inscriptions craze, revenue surged due to a transaction spike, driving up transaction fees. Notably, NEAR employs a fee-burning mechanism, where 70% of all fees are burned, while the remaining 30% is directed to the contract from which the transaction originated.

NEAR User Base Skyrockets

Another key metric demonstrating the protocol’s growth in Q4 2023 is that NEAR experienced significant growth in its user base. 

Average daily active addresses increased by 1,250% YoY, reaching 870,000 in Q4 2023. In addition, the number of daily new addresses grew by a remarkable 550% YoY to 170,000 in Q4 2023. 

NEAR

According to Messari, this expansion comes after the successful launch and adoption of projects such as KAIKAINOW and contributions from the Sweat Economy, Aurora, and Playember, which further supported this positive trend.

NEAR’s daily active addresses were notably higher than those of other leading blockchain networks. For example, Optimism averaged 72,000 daily active addresses, Arbitrum 150,000, Polygon PoS 375,000, and Aptos 60,000 in Q4 2023.

NEAR Inscriptions significantly drove network activity, reaching a yearly high of 14 million transactions in December. Despite this substantial increase, transaction fees remained stable, staying below $0.01 for the quarter. 

Top 25 Blockchain By TVL In Q4 2023

NEAR’s Total Value Locked (TVL) reached $128 million by the end of Q4 2023, marking a remarkable 147% increase from the previous quarter. Among blockchains, NEAR positioned itself at approximately 25th place regarding TVL. 

Within the NEAR Network’s TVL, NEAR contributed $59 million, accounting for nearly 46% of the total TVL on the network. The remaining TVL was distributed across various decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, including Aurora, Ref, Berry Club, and Flux.

NEAR

Additionally, NEAR announced partnerships with projects such as Chainlink and decentralized exchange (DEX) SushiSwap. 

According to Messari, the integration with Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network provided NEAR developers with access to real-world data and external Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), enhancing the functionality and usability of NEAR-based applications. 

On the other hand, the collaboration with SushiSwap allowed NEAR users to access a wide range of token swaps, liquidity pools, and yield farming opportunities, enabling developer adoption and increased usage within the ecosystem. 

Ultimately, looking ahead to 2024, Messari said the protocol’s vision is to iterate the technology roadmap, attract more developers, and attract more leading protocols. 

NEAR

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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NEAR Foundation And Eigen Labs Team Up To Improve Web3 Transactions On Ethereum Rollups

The NEAR Foundation has announced a strategic partnership with Eigen Labs, a startup focused on building the Ethereum restaking protocol Eigen Layer. 

While addressing the challenges of liquidity fragmentation between Layer 2 (L2) solutions, the collaboration aims to reinvent Ethereum (ETH) roll-up transactions, making them “more cost-effective and efficient.”

Rapid And Affordable Ethereum Transactions? 

In a joint statement released on November 10, the NEAR Foundation and Eigen Labs unveiled their plans to develop a “fast finality layer” to power rapid and inexpensive transactions for Ethereum rollups, including cross-rollup transactions. 

Per the announcement, the collaboration seeks to significantly reduce transaction processing times to a mere 3-4 seconds, a notable improvement compared to the minutes, hours, or even days it currently takes. Moreover, it aims to make transactions 4000 times cheaper than existing options, providing a cost advantage for users.

Furthermore, one of the partnership’s key objectives is to establish “secure and low-latency” cross-rollup communication, resolving the challenges faced by developers and founders working with rollups. 

As announced, the Fast Finality Layer will maintain the “security guarantees” of Ethereum while introducing additional guarantees from the NEAR and EigenLayer technologies.

Both protocols believe this solution promises to enhance liquidity by reducing fragmentation between Layer-2 solutions, empowering developers to make informed decisions regarding the sequencers they prefer for transaction processing.

NEAR And Eigen Labs Partnership For ‘Seamless Web3 Integration’

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, expressed pride in partnering with Eigen Labs, emphasizing that the fast finality layer showcases the technological strengths of NEAR while making the Open Web more user-friendly. Polosukhin further stated:

NEAR Foundation is proud to partner with such an excellent team as Eigen Labs to offer a fast finality layer for ETH rollups. The fast finality layer showcases the strengths of NEAR’s technology while making the Open Web more usable, which has always been the core goal for NEAR. It will also help defragment liquidity for Ethereum rollups and make all of Web3 more interoperable as a result.

For his part, Sreeram Kannan, founder of Eigen Labs, shared his enthusiasm for the partnership and highlighted the mutual benefits it brings. In his words, the collaboration will leverage the innovative technologies of both NEAR and EigenLayer, enabling faster, cheaper, and easier development on the Ethereum network.

The collaboration between NEAR and Eigen Labs marks a significant milestone for EigenLayer, as it enables fast settlement for cross-rollup transactions and demonstrates wider adoption of restaking across the Ethereum ecosystem and beyond. 

For NEAR, the partnership extends to enhancing the NEAR-Ethereum Rainbow Bridge by transitioning it to an actively validated service (AVS). This transition is expected to enhance bridging capabilities between NEAR and Ethereum, enabling faster transaction finality, increased security guarantees, and improved decentralization.

The collaboration is expected to launch a testnet in Q1 2024, and further details will be shared then. This partnership between the NEAR Foundation and Eigen Labs holds great promise for advancing Ethereum rollup transactions, improving liquidity, and driving the broader adoption of Web3 technologies.

NEAR

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Polygon Labs And NEAR Foundation Partner For zkWasm L2 Prover Integration

Polygon Labs (MATIC) and the NEAR Foundation have recently announced their collaboration on the development of a zero-knowledge (ZK) prover for the WebAssembly (Wasm) blockchain.  

The alliance aims to “bridge the gap” between Wasm-based chains and the Ethereum ecosystem, providing customization and options for developers building with the Polygon CDK (Chain Development Kit).

NEAR Foundation Joins Polygon As Core Contributor

According to Polygon Labs’ announcement, introducing a zkWasm prover will enable developers utilizing Polygon CDK to choose from various provers when building their projects.

This can be leveraged in various scenarios, including launching or migrating an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain or constructing a Wasm chain for closer alignment with Ethereum and access to liquidity. 

The zkWasm prover will serve as a new runtime, generating zero-knowledge proofs that validate the correctness of native Wasm runtime execution. This advancement is expected to enhance scalability and decentralization, bringing the NEAR protocol closer to Ethereum.

As part of this partnership, the NEAR Foundation is set to become a core contributor to Polygon CDK, expanding the toolkit’s capabilities for developers.

Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, expressed pride in collaborating with NEAR on this research and emphasized the value of the zkWasm prover in providing developers with increased customization options. 

To provide further context, WebAssembly is a widely used framework for running complex programs in web browsers, offering performance comparable to native computer applications. In the context of Web3, the Wasm Virtual Machine serves as a runtime for blockchains like NEAR and Polkadot, differing from the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Scalability And Decentralization Boost?

Per the announcement, in the future, an in-development interop layer will allow chains to join a unified ecosystem of Layer 2 solutions deployed through Polygon CDK. 

This ecosystem will encompass alternative layer-1 chains, EVM layer-2 solutions, and Wasm chains, providing interoperability and defragmentation of liquidity across different chains.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, expressed optimism about the collaboration, emphasizing that it will bring the benefits of zero-knowledge proofs not only to NEAR but to the entire Web3 ecosystem. Polosukhin stated:

We are very excited to work with Polygon Labs to bring all the benefits of zero-knowledge proofs not just to NEAR but all of Web3. NEAR is integrating more with Ethereum by innovating in new research frontiers, and the shared expertise of these two teams will bring a much-needed expansion of the ZK landscape and defragmentation of liquidity across chains. And by creating and using the zkWasm prover, NEAR will also improve the scalability and decentralization of the NEAR L1.

Overall, the collaboration between Polygon Labs and the NEAR Foundation holds significant implications for both protocols. Integrating the zkWasm prover will enhance the capabilities of Polygon CDK, providing developers with more options in building “custom blockchains.” 

Additionally, it will bring NEAR Protocol closer to Ethereum, expanding its interoperability and liquidity opportunities. 

Polygon

As of the latest update, MATIC, the native token of Polygon, is on the verge of reaching the $0.800 level, a milestone that has not been attained since July. The token currently trades at $0.7903, showcasing a noteworthy upward trajectory. 

This positive movement is further bolstered by an impressive 11% uptrend recorded over the past 24 hours. 

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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NEAR Token Lights Up: 22% Price Surge In Seven Days, Network Activity Skyrockets By 350%

NEAR Protocol, a Blockchain Operating System (BOS), demonstrated notable growth in the third quarter of 2023, defying the challenging conditions of the overall cryptocurrency market. 

According to a recent report by Messari, key metrics for NEAR Protocol surged significantly over the past month, buoyed by recent price increases across the crypto market.

Surge In Transactions Drives Revenue Growth For NEAR

Per the report, despite a moderate downturn in the crypto market, with XRP and Grayscale facing court rulings in their favor, NEAR Protocol showcased resilience. The total crypto market capitalization dipped by 5.8%, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) experiencing declines of 7.5% and 10.0% respectively. 

Within this context, NEAR’s circulating market capitalization decreased by 14% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to $1.08 billion, while its fully diluted market capitalization decreased by 17% QoQ to $1.12 billion. 

NEAR

Nevertheless, NEAR Protocol maintained its position as the 40th largest crypto protocol by market capitalization by the end of the quarter.

One of the highlights in Q3 ’23 for the protocol was the revenue growth, which increased by 9% QoQ from $98,000 to $108,000. The average transaction fee remained at a low $0.001 throughout the quarter.

Regarding network activity, NEAR recorded substantial growth in addresses during Q3 ’23. Active addresses increased by 350% QoQ, reaching 260,000 daily active addresses, while new addresses saw a 274% QoQ increase, totaling 51,000 daily new addresses. 

This growth was primarily fueled by the launch of KAIKAINOW, NEAR’s leading application, and supported by contributions from the Web3 health and fitness app, Sweat Economy, and Aurora, a solution that allows the execution of Ethereum contracts in a “more performant environment” in the NEAR ecosystem.

TVL Drops To $52 Million In Q3 2023

According to Messari, NEAR’s Total Value Locked (TVL) experienced a 13% QoQ decrease, amounting to $52 million by the end of the quarter. NEAR ranked approximately 35th among blockchains in terms of TVL. 

NEAR

Within the NEAR Network’s TVL, NEAR’s contribution accounted for $41 million (80%), while Aurora contributed $11 million (20%).

Regarding DEX trading volume, NEAR reported an average daily volume of $1.3 million, maintaining stability compared to the previous quarter. NEAR ranked approximately 30th among DEX trading volumes.

NEAR’s stablecoin market capitalization experienced a 27% QoQ decline, primarily driven by reductions in USDC and USDT. However, the native USDC was launched on NEAR during this period, while USN, the winding-down stablecoin from Decentral Bank, remained unchanged.

NEAR Token’s Bullish Momentum Continues

Regarding price action, as observed in the 1-day chart below, NEAR Protocol’s token, NEAR, has broken a prolonged downtrend that commenced on July 20 and concluded on August 18, leading to a phase of accumulation.

NEAR

However, on October 19, the token initiated an uptrend, resulting in significant gains of 12% over the last 30 days, 22% within the fourteen-day timeframe, and 22.3% in the past week. Presently, the token continues its rally, exhibiting a 2.6% surge in the past 24 hours, bringing the current trading price to $1.23.

When considering the year-over-year period, the token remains significantly below its high in 2022, experiencing a decline of 60% over this duration. Furthermore, for NEAR to reclaim its 2023 yearly high, which stood at $2.83 and was achieved in April, the bullish momentum must persist.

It remains to be seen whether the token can sustain its current bullish momentum and establish a new yearly high, capitalizing on the rallies witnessed by the largest cryptocurrencies in the market in the upcoming months to generate further profits.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Near Protocol (NEAR) Surges Over 22% In One Week, Will It Surpass $2?

NEAR is soaring on the price chart, with a 3.10% increase in the last 24 hours. Even with the bearish nature of the crypto market in 2022, the NEAR protocol started the year strong. The adverse events of 2022 pushed cryptocurrencies under the scrutiny of regulators. However, the market is slowly picking up pace this 2023.

According to a Coin Guru tweet, NEAR is moving upwards, gaining 4.92% in 1 hour. NEAR is a cryptocurrency project designed to be community-based. It is a cloud-computing platform that enables faster transactions and interaction among blockchains.

What Is Behind The Price Surge?

Several factors might be responsible for this increase in the price of NEAR tokens. Web3 innovations top the list of these factors. Web3 has taken over the crypto space with various applications such as gaming, NFTs, fast transactions, etc., and NEAR is at its frontlines. 

NEAR is home to almost 1,000 projects. SweatEconomy is one of its renowned apps with a customer base of over 14 million individuals. The NEAR Protocol development team also hinted that its sharding mechanism, Nightshade, would launch in 2023.

Also, NEAR Protocol gives users an enabling environment to transact seamlessly. Statistics reveal that 22.6 million #NEAR wallets have been created since late 2020. The protocol also supports the staking of NEAR tokens. With its innovative thinking and support of widely adopted decentralized applications (DApps), the attention on NEAR is soaring. 

However, Alex, a Twitter user, was pessimistic about NEAR and its projects. In an opinion poll, he stated his intention to expose a potential rug-pull event on the network if followers supported the action. 95.7% have voted yes in support of the exposure. But Alex is yet to go into details of this particular project. Some users believe he intends to create FUD in the market.

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What Next For NEAR Protocol Token?

NEAR is performing well in the market today, trading at $1.81. The support levels are $1.378, $1.468, and $1.647, while the resistance levels are $1.917, $2.01, and $2.19. The token will test the first resistance level and will likely surpass it based on current performance.

NEAR is currently trading above its 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA); so more positive price movement is expected in the short term. It is still below its 200-day SMA, indicating a possible reversal in the long term for the crypto asset. The price chart shows that the token broke out of a sideways trend and will likely continue its ascent.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently in the overbought region at 70.51. This is a buy signal, as the move will likely continue. The Moving Average Convergence/ Divergence (MACD) is above its signal line but still looks tentative. It further proves that the rally will only sustain for the short term. Near will likely reach the first resistance level of $1.905, yielding a profit for long-position traders.