NEAR Protocol soars: Why the price exploded

Arthur Hayes, the “holy trinity” and 9.85 million liquidated

On May 22, 2026, Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and CIO of Maelstrom, stated that Near Protocol, Hyperliquid and Zcash constituted the “holy trinity” of crypto. The endorsement catalyzed $9.85 million in liquidations of short positions within a few hours. Hayes manages a family office with a documented track record of market movements following his statements. His thesis is structured: Hyperliquid for decentralized crypto trading, Zcash for privacy, NEAR for scalability. This vision coincided with substantial institutional inflows into Bitwise‘s listed product on NEAR.

The NEAR token surged by +15% in 24 hours to reach $2.80, extending a rally that has doubled its price since early May. The cumulative gain over 90 days stands at +115% with volume up by +190% to $1.15 billion. The market capitalization has crossed back over $3 billion since the $1.24 bottom in early May. Analyst Michael van de Poppe confirms that NEAR is displaying “one of the most bullish charts in the market” with a potential target of $5.75. The market interprets this convergence as a structural signal rather than a speculative one.

NEAR Intents: 19 billion in volume and monthly buybacks

NEAR Intents, the protocol’s cross chain transaction system, has processed over $19 billion in cumulative volume and generated $32 million in fees. The mechanism allows a user to simply express their objective and third party “solvers” automatically execute the transaction in the most optimal way.

The protocol is positioning itself as the transaction standard for AI to world interactions, a use case with no direct equivalent on any competing blockchain. Fee revenues fund $3 million in monthly buybacks that structurally compress the circulating supply. The tokenomics work in favor of the token: NEAR no longer has any major unlock events.

Only daily epoch rewards are issued, amounting to 5.4 million NEAR over 30 days, representing 0.4% of the total supply. Near zero selling pressure combined with active buybacks creates the ideal tokenomic setup for sustainable appreciation. This fundamental analysis profile is rare in the mid cap altcoins market. Staking on the network generates competitive yields that attract a growing number of institutional investors.

v2.13 upgrade in June, GSNR ETF in September

The v2.13 upgrade scheduled for June 2026 introduces dynamic resharding: the network scales automatically without governance votes or manual intervention. The same upgrade integrates post quantum cryptographic features that few protocols are taking seriously yet.

NEAR has also unveiled IronClaw and a Confidential GPU Marketplace allowing companies to rent computing power for AI training without exposing their data. These developments position NEAR as the benchmark infrastructure for “agentic commerce”, a system where crypto AI agents execute autonomous transactions across multiple chains.

Grayscale filed an application in January 2026 to convert its NEAR Trust into a spot ETF under the ticker GSNR, with an SEC decision expected in September 2026. A Bitwise Bitcoin ETF on NEAR has also been pending since May 2025. These filings elevate NEAR into the category of assets considered for mainstream consumer products. NVIDIA posted strong Q1 2026 results at $81.6 billion: NVIDIA earnings historically move NEAR, with a documented +58% spike in February following the Q4 2025 results.

Can NEAR target $5.75 before the end of the cycle?

NEAR has broken out of a multi year falling wedge, a major bullish reversal pattern in technical analysis. The dynamic support/resistance sits around $2.30 to $2.40, acting as former resistance turned support. The intermediate resistance at $3.00 is the next hurdle, followed by the $3.50 to $3.75 extension zone. The overbought RSI justifies an entry on consolidation. The MACD is printing growing histograms in positive territory. A drop back below $2.00 would invalidate the short term bullish setup.

For investors looking to invest in crypto through NEAR, a consolidation toward $2.45 to $2.50 offers the best technical entry point. HODL is justified for profiles with a time horizon longer than 6 months given the imminent upgrade and the September ETF catalyst. The NEAR price prediction at $5.75 remains the primary target for the most optimistic analysts.

The 2025 to 2026 crypto bull run offers NEAR a rare window: solid fundamentals, an imminent upgrade and a looming institutional catalyst. The question now is whether the network will deliver on its technological promises in June and if the SEC will approve the GSNR by September 2026.

Sources:

• TradingView
• NEARProtocol on X

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