Near Protocol Token Rises 80% Amid Privacy Features
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Written by
Simonas Brazionis - Updated 2026-09-21 18:55:30
Near Protocol's native token experienced a significant surge of nearly 80% last week, outperforming the broader cryptocurrency market. This increase coincided with the network's expansion of its privacy-focused trading services.
On Monday, NEAR was trading at approximately $4.29, marking a 78.2% rise over seven days and a 22% increase in the preceding 24 hours. In contrast, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization grew by about 6% during the same seven-day period.
Privacy Enhancements and Incentive Programs
Near Protocol announced on Thursday that deposits and withdrawals for perpetual futures trading through near.com are now confidential by default. This feature aims to conceal the connection between a trader's funding wallet and a dedicated Hyperliquid trading account.
Concurrently, Near reported that the confidential total value locked (TVL) on near.com surpassed $70 million. This milestone triggered the initial snapshot for its [email protected] incentive program, which allocated 333,333 milestone tokens for the first distribution. These tokens are designed to unlock and convert to NEAR once its three-day volume-weighted average price reaches at least $3.33.
Cross-Chain Swaps and AI Integration
NEAR Intents, which facilitates cross-chain swaps through market maker competition, recorded approximately $29.3 billion in cumulative volume and $842 million over the past seven days as of Monday. The privacy-focused Zcash wallet ZODL was identified as the third-largest referral source by volume in the preceding 24 hours, generating about $3.8 million across 458 transactions.
Bitwise research analyst Camran Khosravi suggested that Near and Zcash are complementary, noting that Near provides ZEC holders with confidential cross-chain infrastructure and access to liquidity. Khosravi also cautioned that NEAR Intents' TVL could increase due to a rise in the price of ZEC already held within the system, even without new deposits.
Beyond trading, Near Protocol has also expanded its privacy focus to include AI applications. In July, NEAR AI introduced staking-based payments, enabling users to stake NEAR to obtain credits for confidential AI inference and agent hosting while retaining ownership of their underlying tokens.
