Why NEAR is the Narrative King of This Cycle?

Author: 0x_Zhuang

Compiled by: Baihua Blockchain

A month and a half ago, I started heavily investing in $NEAR.

Some people asked me how I was able to discover it before its recent surge in attention.

Looking back, my investment analysis framework has always been relatively simple:

• Narrative,
• Fundamentals, and
• Who's behind it.

I once believed that NEAR was one of the few projects that could encompass all three elements, but after delving into its latest developments, my confidence has become even stronger.

I gradually realized that NEAR is far more than just another ordinary L1 competing for liquidity.

It is positioning itself as the underlying infrastructure for AI, privacy, and cross-chain finance, and I believe the market is still severely underestimating its value.

The reasons are as follows:

1. The Narrative is Starting to Deeply Integrate

My initial interest in NEAR stemmed from its simultaneous alignment with the two strongest narratives in the crypto space: privacy and AI.

With the strong resurgence of $ZEC, NEAR Intents has become one of the core channels for cross-chain ZEC liquidity; when I first conducted my research, its processed ZEC transaction volume had already surpassed $2.2 billion.

Now, with the help of Confidential Intents and its integration with Hyperliquid, NEAR is making strides into privacy-focused perpetual contract trading.

Bitwise's latest research report also pointed out that Confidential Intents account for over 50% of the total value held in the Intents protocol; privacy is no longer just a verbal narrative, and real spot buying demand has taken shape.

2. Every Chain Will Become NEAR's L2

This is the most intriguing part of the entire investment logic.

While other blockchains are still competing for users and on-chain liquidity, NEAR is building the infrastructure to connect them all.

Recently, Robinhood Chain completed integration with NEAR Intents and near.com, enabling seamless cross-chain transactions across over 30 networks and more than 180 assets.

Additionally, with Hyperliquid perpetual contracts and Ondo's tokenized US stocks and ETFs, users can directly access crypto assets, traditional stocks, and derivatives without worrying about which blockchain they are currently on; NEAR essentially abstracts away the underlying blockchain.

It no longer competes with various public chain ecosystems but instead continues to benefit from empowering interconnectivity. Admittedly, mere ecological integration cannot directly guarantee profits, but this pattern is far grander than simply competing for TVL like an ordinary L1.

3. On-chain Fundamental Data Has Exploded

When I initially started accumulating, the cumulative processing volume of NEAR Intents was about $25 billion. According to the latest on-chain snapshot I tracked:

• Cumulative transaction volume exceeds $33 billion
• Transaction volume in the past 30 days reached $4.76 billion
• Intents' total value locked (TVL) surpassed $223 million
• Cumulative total fees exceeded $53 million
• Fees captured in the past 30 days reached $7.28 million
• Net profit in the past 30 days reached $2.15 million

Based on the current 30-day annualized operating rate, annualized total fees are approximately $87 million, and annualized net profit is about $26 million.

For a project that is still generally regarded as an ordinary L1 by the market, this performance is already quite impressive. With near.com launching features that integrate spot, perpetual, and wallet based on Intents, the ecosystem has gained another powerful entry point for customer acquisition and fee capture.

User growth → Increased transaction volume → Increased revenue → Enhanced potential token buyback; this is the growth flywheel I value highly.

4. Token Economics Model Becomes More Attractive

This may be one of the most underestimated catalysts in the entire investment logic.

NEAR has halved its annual token inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%, directly reducing the new issuance by 50%.

Since February, the fees earned by NEAR from the Intents protocol have been directly used for open market buybacks of $NEAR.

Moreover, there is currently a proposal underway to further reduce the annual inflation to 1.6%.

Lower inflation, continuously growing protocol revenue, and token buybacks driven by real income.

5. Decentralized AI May Be the Biggest Potential Opportunity

Currently, the vast majority of AI tokens in the crypto space are still in the pure conceptual hype stage.

Very few projects can tightly bind real AI applications with token utility.

NEAR is very likely to become the exception that breaks the mold.

Its co-founder @ilblackdragon is one of the co-authors of the foundational paper "Attention Is All You Need" that propelled the birth of modern large language models.

Now, NEAR AI is building a privacy reasoning and decentralized computing power network; its logic is very pure:

Breaking the complete dependence on centralized cloud giants, allowing independent GPU computing nodes to contribute computing power to the network.

NEAR AI's Confidential GPU Marketplace utilizes Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) for protection.

AI tasks and data are secured, and the authenticity of the execution environment is verified through hardware authentication.

NEAR defines it as the first TEE secure computing power network designed specifically for enterprise and government-level AI tasks.

Decentralized computing power itself is not rare, but combining independent computing nodes with confidential and verifiable execution mechanisms has enormous imaginative space.

And this is where blockchain can truly realize its value:

Coordinating independent computing nodes, payment settlements, staking, and economic incentives without the intervention of centralized managers.

Currently, even Venice ($VVV) has integrated NEAR AI's confidential reasoning infrastructure.

More importantly, NEAR AI has launched token-staking-based reasoning and AI agent hosting access.

Users only need to stake $NEAR to continuously obtain AI computing power while retaining ownership of the staked tokens.

This provides NEAR with a new substantial source of token demand beyond on-chain transaction fees and investment speculation.

6. The Launch of Bitwise ETF and Historical Endorsement

On September 29, Bitwise officially launched the first NEAR spot ETF in the U.S. (code: $NRR).

On October 7, it released an in-depth research report titled "NEAR in Plain English".

The logic behind it is very clear and intuitive:

The crypto ecosystem is highly fragmented across hundreds of independent blockchains, while AI computing power is increasingly monopolized by centralized giants.

NEAR Intents solves the fragmentation of inter-chain liquidity, while NEAR AI is building a verifiable private AI infrastructure.

Together, NEAR is expected to become the core execution layer for autonomous AI agents.

Also worth noting is Bitwise's outstanding historical performance in operating crypto ETFs: $BITB ------ Bitcoin ETF

• Launched in January 2024

• Ranked as one of the 25 ETPs to break $1 billion AUM the fastest in history

• Asset scale surpassed $2 billion within about two months

• As of October 2026, AUM reached approximately $3.1 billion $BSOL ------ Solana Staking ETF

• Launched in October 2025

• Surpassed $500 million AUM within just 18 trading days

• As of October 2026, AUM reached approximately $1.2 billion $NRR ------ NEAR ETF

• Launched on September 29, 2026

• Early AUM has reached approximately $60 million

• Provides spot NEAR risk exposure with a staking yield component.

Although AUM does not completely equate to net inflows, the past popularity of products cannot guarantee that NEAR will replicate the same trajectory.

However, Bitwise's ability to attract traditional funds into crypto assets has been repeatedly validated.

Now, institutional investors have a legitimate U.S. stock market channel to directly invest in NEAR without complex wallet management or self-custody.

I believe this will be a significant long-term catalyst.

7. The Risk-Reward Ratio Still Exhibits High Asymmetry

This is perhaps the aspect I am most optimistic about.

Currently validated AI startups that have achieved PMF (Product-Market Fit) and generated stable revenue often have valuations in the hundreds of billions.

In contrast, when I conducted my comparative analysis, NEAR's market cap was hovering around $5 billion.

Imagine a public chain that combines: AI underlying infrastructure, confidential reasoning, decentralized computing power, cross-chain settlement, RWA tokenized assets, and a real buyback mechanism.

It is evident that crypto tokens cannot be directly equated with equity in AI companies.

However, if NEAR can effectively capture the massive demand brought by AI computing power and cross-chain financial settlements, I believe the market's pricing logic for it will undergo a fundamental shift.

Especially when most market participants still regard it as just another ordinary L1.

8. Finally, Let's See Who is Backing It

As early as July this year, I listened to a one-hour episode of Mert's WSH podcast.

Towards the end of the show, he mentioned three key positions he was focusing on: $ZEC, $SOL,

and finally the dark horse he viewed as $NEAR.

At that time, almost no one in the market was paying attention here. Just a few months later:

Naval started retweeting NEAR-related tweets.

Mert has repeatedly expressed bullish views in public.

Robinhood Chain, Hyperliquid, and Ondo have successively integrated into NEAR's financial system, with more integrations on the way.

Bitwise has even directly launched a spot ETF and released detailed bullish research reports.

I never blindly follow trends just because well-known figures are optimistic.

But when narratives, fundamentals, token economics, and funding channels from traditional institutions resonate simultaneously, the signal is already very clear.

Final Thoughts

Many people previously asked me how I had the confidence to heavily invest over a month ago.

My investment principle has always been very clear: once I have thoroughly researched and established a solid belief, the only thing left is timing and position management.

As long as the logic is closed and the belief is firm, I will completely block out external noise and decisively build a large position through dollar-cost averaging (DCA) and limit orders. As long as the core logic has not been disproven, I can fully bear a 50% paper drawdown, but I absolutely do not want to miss a potential cross-cycle surge that could change my financial standing.

A month and a half ago, I decisively bought NEAR at an average price of around $2 because I saw multiple core narratives beginning to converge here. Now, my bullish sentiment has become even stronger because its fundamentals, product implementation, and token economic mechanisms are visibly realizing at a rapid pace.

AI, privacy, DeFi, continuously growing revenue, token buybacks, inflation halved, and the opening of institutional funding channels; all positive factors are forming a perfect closed loop within the same ecosystem.

The market is still pricing it as an ordinary L1, but its future ceiling is much broader.

The stars are aligning.

And we are still in the early stages.

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