NEAR rose 6% to $5.50, surpassing XLM in market value

NEAR Protocol has surpassed Stellar in market value and returned to the top 20 in the world.

NEAR Protocol's price has risen sharply by about 6%, to around US$5.50. Its market value has surpassed Stellar, re-entering the ranks of the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the world by market value.

Market performance and ranking changes

Data showed that NEAR prices rose approximately 6% to US$5.50, bringing its total market value to exceed Stellar's US$6.97 billion valuation. According to CoinGecko, after Thursday's market rebound, NEAR ranked 20th in terms of market value, ahead of Stellar, which ranked 21st.

Specifically, as of October 8, NEAR's market value was approximately US$7.2 billion, while Stellar's market value was approximately US$6.97 billion. During this period, NEAR traded at around $5.50, while XLM (Stellar's native token) traded at around $0.199 after falling nearly 4%.

As NEAR prices rise, trading activity has increased significantly. Its 24-hour trading volume is close to US$1.26 billion, compared with XLM's latest 24-hour trading volume of only approximately US$177 million. In terms of circulation supply, NEAR has approximately 1.31 billion tokens in circulation, while Stellar's circulation supply is approximately 35 billion XLMs.

The two-way trend widens the gap

NEAR's entry into the top 20 is due to the two completely different trends. Data showed that NEAR rose by about 6% on the day and about 0.6% weekly; while XLM fell nearly 4% in 24 hours and fell by 12.8% in a week.

Although the market value gap between the two is relatively small-NEAR is valued at approximately US$7.18 billion and Stellar is approximately US$6.97 billion, with a difference of approximately US$200 million-the ranking of cryptocurrencies changes quickly with price fluctuations.

Technical Analysis and Historical Performance

NEAR has rebounded strongly from below US$4 in September. Historical data showed the token closed at $3.59 on September 19, then broke through the $5 mark later this month, and closed at $5.33 on October 7, further extending its gains on Thursday.

Although the current price is around $5.50, it is still well below its historical high of $20.44. CoinGecko shows its historical low of $0.5268, and the current price is more than ten times higher than that level.

From technical indicators, the daily relative strength index (RSI) is about 68, which is lower than the 70 level that is usually considered an overbought area, indicating that the market momentum is strong but has not yet overheated.

NEAR Intances processing capacity exceeds US$33 billion

As token prices recover, activity in the NEAR Intances agreement also heats up. Official data shows that the cumulative transaction volume processed by the agreement on 35 blockchains has exceeded $33 billion, up from the $30 billion figure cited earlier this week.

NEAR Intents 允许用户在链外做市商（即“求解者”）之间发起跨链交易请求，由求解者竞争执行。该系统旨在简化资产在不同链之间手动转移的步骤。

NEAR 的收入仪表板目前显示，“机密意图”（Confidential Intents）的总锁定价值为 1.4406 亿美元，较 90 天前增长了 335.1%。仪表板指出，协议费用流入多个收入渠道，包括前端费用、业务集成和报价优化。

此次增长发生在本月早些时候的安全事件之后。此前报道指出，由于 Omni 存取款系统存在漏洞，NEAR Intents 服务曾暂停活动。联合创始人 Illia Polosukhin 表示，该漏洞已修复，受影响用户将获得赔偿。他强调，核心 NEAR 区块链及 NEAR 代币在此次事件中未受损害。

Bitwise 看好 NEAR 的业务基础与 AI 愿景

Bitwise 首席投资官 Matt Hougan 在讨论具有现有活跃度且具备长期增长潜力的中小型加密资产时，特别提到了 NEAR。

Hougan 在 10 月 7 日的研究报告中指出，NEAR Intents 在当时已在超过 35 条区块链上处理了超过 320 亿美元的交易量，目前这一数字已突破 330 亿美元。他评价称，NEAR 现有的 Intents 活动是一项已有可衡量使用的业务，而其构建人工智能（AI）代理基础设施的努力则是一项长期的押注。

Hougan wrote: "The business already exists, but the dream is big and bold." He highlighted Intents, private AI infrastructure and the NEAR program's ability to allow software agents to conduct transactions between different blockchains. According to Bitwise research, NEAR AI Cloud runs open source AI models within a trusted execution environment to protect user data privacy. Confidential Intention, launched in February, is aimed at traders and institutions seeking private cross-chain execution.

U.S. ETF listings and technical resistance

On September 29, Bitwise launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF with the code NRR on NYSE Arca. This is the first spot NEAR exchange-traded product in the United States, with a management fee rate of 0.75%. The fund manager plans to pledge some of the NEAR held by the fund. The move provides a channel for U.S. investors to directly configure NEAR through regulated exchange-traded vehicles.

Currently, NEAR prices are facing resistance in the US$5.50 to US$6 range. According to CoinGecko data, NEAR's most recent 24-hour trading range is approximately $4.96 to $5.56, with prices close to the upper limit of the intraday range.

Cryptocurrency analyst Giannis Andreou pointed out that the first major confirmation area lies between $5.50 and $6.00. In its weekly chart scenario, a close above the range and a successful backtest would enhance the possibility of a broader trend reversal. If NEAR retracts, Andreou believes that US$4.00 to US$4.60 is the initial support area, and the next resistance area is between US$7.50 and US$9.00, while the previous historical high of US$20.44 is still far away. He said that if it fell below $4, his bullish arguments would weaken.

In addition, the daily chart shows NEAR trading above the middle track of the Bollinger Band (US$4.81), the lower track is around US$3.88, and the upper track is close to US$5.74. The RSI indicator is about 68.31, which is below the overbought threshold of 70, but well above the neutral level of 50. Its RSI moving average is around 71.47, indicating momentum has cooled from previous readings, but prices are still close to recent highs.

Futures market activity remains active. CoinGecko data shows that the value of open interest in perpetual contracts in the NEAR market is approximately US$2.88 billion, and the 8-hour funding rate is approximately 0.0085%. Analyst CW pointed out that open interest and net position increases rose during the rebound, indicating strong buying pressure in the futures market. However, open interest only measures derivative positions and does not directly predict that prices will continue to rise.

Previous analysis has identified the US$5.50 to US$6.20 area as the main resistance area for NEAR. If buyers fail to hold the breakthrough area, initial support may move down to around $4.70.