Author: 0x_Zhuang
Compiled by: Vernacular Blockchain
A month and a half ago, I began heavily dollar-cost averaging into $NEAR
Some people asked me how I was able to spot it ahead of its recent surge in attention
Looking back, my investment analysis framework has actually always been relatively simple:
Narrative,
Fundamentals, and
Who's behind it
I once thought NEAR was one of the few projects that could cover almost all three of these elements, but after digging deeper into its latest developments, my conviction became even stronger
I gradually realized that NEAR is by no means just another ordinary L1 competing for liquidity
It is positioning itself as the underlying infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI), privacy, and cross-chain finance, and I believe the market is still severely undervaluing it
Here's why:
1. The narrative is beginning to converge deeply
My initial interest in NEAR came from the fact that it simultaneously hit the two strongest narratives in crypto:
Privacy and AI
With the strong comeback of $ZEC, NEAR Intents has become one of the core channels for cross-chain ZEC liquidity; when I first did my research, its ZEC transaction volume had already surpassed $2.2 billion
Now, with Confidential Intents and its integration with Hyperliquid, NEAR is riding the trend into privacy-focused perpetual contract trading
Bitwise's latest research report also pointed out that Confidential Intents account for more than 50% of the total value held in the Intents protocol Privacy is no longer just a verbal narrative; real spot buying demand has already taken shape
2. Every chain will become NEAR's L2
This is the most intriguing part of the entire investment thesis
While other blockchains are still engaged in internal competition for users and on-chain liquidity, NEAR is building the infrastructure that connects them all
Robinhood Chain recently completed integration with NEAR Intents and near.com, enabling seamless cross-chain trading across more than 30 networks and over 180 assets
Add to that Hyperliquid perpetual contracts and Ondo's tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs Users do not need to care which blockchain they are currently on and can directly access crypto assets, traditional stocks, and derivatives NEAR has essentially completely abstracted away the underlying blockchain
It no longer competes with individual public chain ecosystems, but instead continuously benefits by enabling interconnection Admittedly, ecosystem integration alone cannot directly guarantee revenue, but this landscape is far grander than that of an ordinary L1 simply fighting over TVL
3. On-chain fundamentals have already exploded across the board
When I first started accumulating, NEAR Intents' cumulative processed volume was around $25 billion And according to the latest on-chain snapshot I tracked:
Cumulative transaction volume exceeds $33 billion
Transaction volume over the past 30 days reached $4.76 billion
Intents TVL surpassed $223 million
Cumulative total fees exceeded $53 million
Fees captured over the past 30 days reached $7.28 million
Net income over the past 30 days reached $2.15 million
Calculated at the current 30-day annualized run rate, annualized total fees are about $87 million, and annualized net income is about $26 million
For a project that is still widely regarded by the market as an ordinary L1, this performance is already quite impressive With near.com launching spot, perpetuals, and wallet functions based on Intents, the ecosystem has gained another powerful entry point for customer acquisition and fee capture
User growth → trading volume expansion → increased revenue → potential token buybacks strengthened This is exactly the growth flywheel I value extremely highly
4. The token economics model has become even more attractive
This may be one of the most undervalued catalysts in the entire investment thesis
NEAR has already cut its annual token inflation rate in half from 5% to 2.5%, directly reducing new issuance by 50%
Since February, NEAR's share of Intents protocol fees has also been directly used for public buybacks of $NEAR in the secondary market
And a proposal to further reduce annual inflation to 1.6% is currently being advanced
Lower inflation, continuously growing protocol revenue, and token buybacks driven by real revenue
5. Decentralized AI may be the biggest potential opportunity
At present, the vast majority of AI tokens in crypto are still stuck in a stage of pure conceptual hype
Very few projects can tightly bind real AI applications with token utility
NEAR is very likely to be the exception that breaks the mold
Its co-founder @ilblackdragon is one of the co-authors of the foundational paper that drove the birth of modern large language models, "Attention Is All You Need"
Today, NEAR AI is building a privacy inference and decentralized compute network Its logic is very pure:
Break complete dependence on centralized cloud giants and let independent GPU compute nodes contribute compute to the network
NEAR AI's Confidential GPU Marketplace uses trusted execution environments (TEE) to protect
AI tasks and data, and verifies the authenticity of the operating environment through hardware attestation
NEAR defines it as the first TEE-secured compute network designed specifically for enterprise- and government-grade AI tasks
Decentralized compute itself is not rare, but combining independent compute nodes with confidential, verifiable execution mechanisms offers enormous imaginative potential
And this is exactly where blockchain can truly deliver value:
Coordinating independent compute nodes, payment settlement, staking, and economic incentives without the intervention of a centralized manager
At present, even Venice ($VVV) has integrated NEAR AI's confidential inference infrastructure
More critically, NEAR AI has launched token-staking-based inference and AI Agent hosting access
Users only need to stake $NEAR to continuously obtain AI compute credits while retaining ownership of the staked tokens
This gives NEAR a brand-new source of substantive token demand beyond on-chain transaction fees and investment speculation
6. The launch of the Bitwise ETF and historical backing
On September 29, Bitwise officially launched the first U.S. spot NEAR ETF (ticker: $NRR)
And on October 7, it released an in-depth investment research report, "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 compute is increasingly monopolized by centralized giants
NEAR Intents solves liquidity fragmentation between chains, while NEAR AI is building a verifiable private AI foundation
Together, NEAR is ultimately expected to become the core execution layer for autonomously operating AI Agents
Also worth noting is Bitwise's outstanding historical track record in operating crypto ETFs: $BITB — Bitcoin ETF
Launched in January 2024
Ranked among the 25 fastest ETPs in history to surpass $1 billion in AUM
Assets surpassed $2 billion in about two months
As of October 2026, AUM reached about $3.1 billion $BSOL — Solana staking ETF
Launched in October 2025
Surpassed $500 million in AUM in just 18 trading days after listing
As of October 2026, AUM reached about $1.2 billion $NRR — NEAR ETF
Launched on September 29, 2026
Early AUM has already reached about $60 million
Provides spot NEAR exposure with a staking yield component Although AUM is not entirely equivalent to net inflows, and the popularity of past products cannot 100% guarantee that NEAR will replicate the same trajectory Bitwise's ability to attract traditional capital into crypto assets has been repeatedly proven Now, institutional investors have a legitimate U.S.-listed channel to directly gain NEAR exposure without complex wallet management or self-custody I believe this will be a highly significant long-term catalystProvides spot NEAR exposure with a staking yield component
Although AUM is not entirely equivalent to net inflows, and the past popularity of products cannot fully guarantee that NEAR will replicate the same trajectory
But Bitwise's ability to attract traditional capital into crypto assets has been repeatedly proven
Now, institutional investors have a legitimate U.S.-listed channel to gain direct exposure to NEAR without complex wallet management or self-custody
I think this will be a highly significant long-term catalyst
7. The risk-reward ratio still shows extremely high asymmetry (Asymmetric)
This is probably the point I am most bullish on
AI startups that have already validated PMF (product-market fit) and generate stable revenue often have primary-market valuations in the tens of billions of dollars
At the time of my comparative analysis, NEAR's market cap was hovering at only around $5 billion
Imagine a public chain that combines: AI underlying infrastructure, confidential inference, decentralized compute, cross-chain settlement, RWA tokenized assets, and a real-money buyback mechanism
Obviously, crypto tokens cannot be directly equated with equity in AI companies
But if NEAR can effectively capture the enormous demand brought by AI compute and cross-chain financial settlement, I believe the market's pricing logic for it will ultimately undergo a fundamental shift
Especially since most market participants still view it as just another ordinary L1
·8. Finally, look at who is standing behind it
As early as July this year, I listened to an hour-long WSH podcast with Mert
Near the end of the episode, he mentioned three positions he was heavily allocated to at the time: $ZEC, $SOL
and finally $NEAR, which he regarded as a dark horse
At that point in time, almost no one in the market was paying attention here. In just a few months:
Naval began retweeting NEAR-related tweets
Mert has repeatedly and clearly expressed his bullish view in public
Robinhood Chain, Hyperliquid, and Ondo have successively integrated into NEAR's financial system, with more integrations on the way
Bitwise even directly launched a spot ETF and published a detailed bullish research report
I never blindly follow along just because well-known figures are bullish
But when narrative, fundamentals, token economics, and traditional institutional funding channels resonate at the same time, the signal is already very clear
Final thoughts
Many people previously asked me where I got the confidence to aggressively build a large position more than a month ago
My investment creed has always been very clear: once I have done thorough research and built sufficiently strong conviction, all that remains is entry timing and position management
As long as the logic is closed-loop and conviction is firm, I will completely block out external noise and decisively build a large position through DCA (DCA) plus limit orders. As long as the core logic has not been falsified, I can fully withstand a 50% paper drawdown, but I absolutely do not want to miss a cross-cycle surge that could change one's social class
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 rollout, and token economic mechanism are being delivered at a visibly rapid pace
AI, privacy, DeFi, continuously growing revenue, token buybacks, halved inflation, and the opening of institutional funding pipelines. All positive factors have formed a perfect closed loop within the same ecosystem
The market is still only pricing it as an ordinary L1, but its future ceiling is far broader
The stars are aligning
And we are still in the early stage