The NEAR Protocol (NEAR), positioned as an AI-native blockchain, has indeed seen a notable rebound, driven by heightened ecosystem activity.
This positions NEAR at #32–#48 among cryptocurrencies, with live prices around $2.67 USD and circulating supply of ~1.28B tokens. Recent surges (e.g., +20–38% in early November) have pushed it toward $3.6B amid broader AI-blockchain hype.
NEAR’s DEXs (e.g., Ref Finance) benefited from a broader DeFi boom, with global DEX volumes hitting records like $1.36T in October 2025. NEAR-specific on-chain trading doubled daily ATH to $200M in early November, fueled by intents-based liquidity tools.
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NEAR’s stablecoin ecosystem (e.g., USN, bridged USDC/USDT) grew in tandem with DeFi expansion. This mirrors a 2–10x global stablecoin surge since 2020, with non-USD variants up 30% due to USD volatility from U.S. tariff policies.
What Drove This Growth?
The 533% QoQ surge reflects NEAR’s shift toward “intents” user-friendly transaction abstractions, which slashed friction in DeFi trading. This led to record on-chain activity, including Zcash integration for privacy-enhanced swaps and a rotation into AI-infra tokens like NEAR amid Bitcoin/Ethereum slumps.
Stablecoin Momentum: The 28% jump supports NEAR’s role as a high-throughput L1 for AI agents and dApps. Stablecoins on NEAR enable seamless cross-Web2/Web3 interactions, with total issuance nearing institutional thresholds (e.g., USDC at $61B globally). This ties into NEAR’s founders’ AI roots—co-authoring the transformer paper behind modern LLMs.
Despite macro headwinds (e.g., $500B+ drain from global bank reserves since July), NEAR’s +24% QoQ outpaced the crypto market’s -8.8% dip. AI narratives, developer incentives, and integrations like Halliday reducing onboarding to <60 seconds amplified adoption.
NEAR’s trajectory suggests continued upside if DeFi volumes sustain projections: spot DEXs at $1.3T+ in Q4. Price forecasts for late 2025 hover at $1.90–$2.30, but volatility looms from regulatory shifts (e.g., U.S. GENIUS Act for stablecoins) and competition from Solana/Tron DEXs.
NEAR Intents: A User-Centric Transaction ModelNEAR Intents is a declarative transaction paradigm that lets users state what they want to achieve (e.g., “swap 10 USDC for the best-priced ETH”) instead of how to achieve it (writing a multi-step script across DEXs, bridges, etc.).
The network’s solvers compete to fulfill the intent in a single, atomic, gasless (for the user) transaction. Think of it as Uber for blockchain actions: you say “take me from A to B”, and specialized solvers figure out the optimal route, gas, and execution path.
Users sign a high-level intent ? Solvers race to deliver the best outcome ? The winning solution is executed atomically on-chain. User creates a signed message: I want to swap X ? Y with min output Z. No gas, no account needed upfront.
Intent Pool; Intent is posted to an on-chain or off-chain mempool like a job board. Specialized bots (solvers) scan intents and build execution paths using DEXs, bridges, lending, etc. Solvers submit bundled transactions via account abstraction that fulfill the intent.
Atomic Execution; The best solution (by user-defined criteria: price, speed, etc.) is selected and executed in one block. User pays the solver in the output asset (e.g., ETH), not NEAR gas.
Users don’t need a NEAR account. Intents are signed with any key (EOA, passkey, MPC). NEAR can sign transactions for other chains (EVM, BTC, Solana) via MPC-TSS. Enables cross-chain in one intent. Open market of solvers (like 1inch Fusion or CoW Swap) but native to L1.
Solvers front gas; users pay in target asset. Intents can route through Zcash shielded pools or Nightshade sharding for MEV protection. Solver bridges via Rainbow Bridge, swaps on Ref Finance, delivers NEAR.
Solver checks Ref, Burrow Swap, Trisolaris ? picks optimal path. AI agent signs intent; solver executes on approval signal. User writes script (approve ? swap ? bridge). User signs one message. Multi-step, high failure rate. Atomic, all-or-nothing. Pays gas in native token. Pays in output asset.