NEAR is the currency of NEAR Protocol, a blockchain of its own (a Layer 1). Accounts can use readable names such as alice.near, and the token pays fees, secures the network through staking and covers on-chain storage.
This article checks three things against public data and the issuer’s own documentation: how NEAR works, how its price has moved, and where it is listed and how it can be held.
Every figure was measured on 25 September 2026 at 18:39 JST. It is written for people holding crypto with their own money, and it neither recommends a trade nor predicts a price.
What NEAR Protocol (NEAR) is
| Name | NEAR Protocol |
|---|---|
| Ticker | $NEAR |
| Chains | NEAR (its own chain) |
| Launched | October 2020 (transfers enabled) |
| Market cap rank | 22nd ($6.46bn) |
| Price | $4.94 |
| Issuer | NEAR Protocol (supported by NEAR Foundation) |
The documentation describes NEAR as a layer-one, sharded, proof-of-stake blockchain “built with usability in mind”. Sharding splits the network into pieces that process transactions in parallel.
NEAR is the native token of this chain. It started with 1 billion tokens in 2020; validator rewards have since brought the total to about 1.307 billion. The issuer says the supply is now fully unlocked.
NEAR Foundation, which supports the ecosystem, describes itself as a non-profit organisation based in Switzerland. The official site says core protocol development is carried out by NEAR One.
When withdrawing from an exchange, pick NEAR as the network. We could not find an official list of NEAR token addresses on other chains in the issuer’s documentation.
Why a token like NEAR came about, and what it changes
What was awkward before
According to the official site, in 2018 the founders tried to pay students around the world for their work. Many had no bank account, and sending crypto at the time was prohibitively expensive.
The documentation contrasts this with Ethereum: addresses are long 0x strings, fees are “in the order of dollars”, and a block arrives roughly every 12 seconds.
As more chains appeared, users also had to juggle a wallet, a bridge and a fee token for each one. The issuer calls this fragmentation an infrastructure problem that users should not have to manage.
What NEAR changes
On NEAR, the documentation puts fees “in the order of tenths of a cent”, with a block about every 0.6 seconds and finality in about 1.2 seconds. Addresses can be memorable names such as alice.near.
Apps can pay the fee on a user’s behalf through meta transactions. With Chain Signatures, a NEAR account can also sign transactions on other chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.
The social impact
Paying across borders
Readable names and low fees fit the problem the founders ran into: sending small amounts to people in other countries. Local rules and moving between crypto and bank money remain separate questions.
Walls between chains
With NEAR Intents, a user states only the outcome, such as swapping one token for another, and market makers compete to carry it out. The issuer reports over 35 chains and $19 billion in cumulative volume.
Payments by AI
The issuer presents NEAR as infrastructure for an economy in which AI agents pay for things themselves. In July 2026 it launched a way to cover NEAR AI usage by staking NEAR instead of paying a card subscription.
Income for developers
When an app (a smart contract) runs, 30% of the fee it burns goes to that contract.
The limits
- Volume figures are the issuer’s own reports, not independent audits
- Low fees mean little is burned; in October 2025 the issuer itself described fee burning as relatively low
- The private shard for confidential transactions is run by seven permissioned validators
- Losing the keys can lock the funds for good; recovery keys only arrived in September 2026
What makes NEAR different
A name can be the address
NEAR supports three kinds of address: a name such as alice.near, a 64-character implicit address derived from a key pair, and an Ethereum-style address starting with 0x.
Since November 2024, Ethereum wallets such as MetaMask can also sign in to NEAR apps without a separate NEAR wallet.
Fees are paid in NEAR, and most are burned
Fees are paid in NEAR. Apart from the 30% that goes to contracts, the fee is burned. Accounts that store data must also lock 1 NEAR for every 100KB they use, which the documentation calls storage staking.
Staking rewards come from new issuance
Validators are rewarded from new issuance capped at 2.5% of the total supply a year. A halving from 5% was proposed in October 2025, and the issuer described it as done in February 2026.
Holders can delegate NEAR to a validator and share its rewards. To withdraw, you unstake first and then wait four epochs, about 24 hours, before the tokens can be moved.
How NEAR has moved so far
As of 25 September the price had moved +17.1% over twenty-four hours, +34.5% over seven days, +153.4% over thirty days and +64.3% over one year. Within the day it ranged between $4.17 and $4.96.
The all-time high was $20.44 on 16 January 2022, and the price now sits about 76% below it. The all-time low was $0.527 on 4 November 2020.
Looking at daily values over the past year, the highest was $4.94 at the time of measurement and the lowest was $0.964 on 12 February 2026: roughly a 5.1-fold gap within twelve months.
Turnover across all venues was about $1.64 billion over twenty-four hours, around a quarter of the market capitalisation changing hands within a day.
What to watch from here
Where things stand
Items the issuer describes as in development or planned (checked on 25 September 2026):
| In development | A stablecoin transport protocol built on NEAR Intents (February 2026 post) |
|---|---|
| Planned | Universal account IDs not tied to one signature scheme (autumn 2026 upgrade) |
| Target | Consensus secure against quantum computers (end of 2027) |
| Being set up | A governance-run structure to manage product revenue |
Sources of demand
In the documentation, NEAR is used for fees, for storage deposits and for staking. More activity on the chain means more NEAR paid in fees and burned; that relationship is part of the design.
The issuer says revenue-share payouts from NEAR Intents are now denominated in NEAR and that some revenue has gone to NEAR buybacks. It also states plainly that no buyback is guaranteed.
Who stands behind it
The official site notes that co-founder Illia Polosukhin co-authored the Transformer paper that underpins today’s large language models.
The issuer says the mainnet has run for more than five years with 100% uptime, and an October 2025 post counts more than 300 validators.
Points of concern
- Issuance continues: the total has grown from 1 billion in 2020 to about 1.307 billion
- The price moves widely: about 2.5 times in thirty days, yet about 76% below its peak
- Buybacks and other uses of revenue depend on votes and are not promised
- Roadmap dates are the issuer’s targets and may slip
Where NEAR is listed (public data)
Who can buy it
NEAR is a public crypto-asset that anyone can trade on an exchange that lists it.
In public data taken at 18:39 JST on 25 September, neither OKJ (46 markets) nor bitbank (62 pairs) listed NEAR. Other Japanese exchanges were not checked for this article.
Where spot NEAR trades
CoinGecko’s per-exchange data, taken at the same time, shows the five venues with the largest twenty-four-hour turnover, with their share of the total:
- Binance 18.1%
- BTCC 7.6%
- Websea 5.8%
- Coinbase Exchange 5.2%
- WhiteBIT 4.9%
NEAR on Hyperliquid
Hyperliquid lists a NEAR perpetual contract. A perpetual tracks the price; it does not deliver the NEAR token itself.
At the same time, the public figures were: maximum leverage 10x, 24-hour turnover about $280 million, and open interest about $387 million. On the same venue BTC allows 40x and ETH 25x.
The funding rate was +0.00491% per hour, about 0.12% per day, paid by buyers to sellers.
With leverage, a small move against a position can take the entire margin.
Wallets for NEAR
NEAR has wallets built for it, and it can also be held in multi-chain wallets that support other chains too. The official wallet list (wallet.near.org) shows the following, as of 25 September 2026.
- Meteor Wallet: web, browser extension and mobile app
- HOT Wallet: mobile and browser extension
- NEAR Mobile: mobile
- Nightly Wallet: mobile and browser extension, with support for other chains as well
- Intear Wallet, Sweat Wallet and Ethereum wallets such as MetaMask
For long-term holding, the Ledger hardware wallet also works. Ledger’s own app, Ledger Wallet, can send, receive and stake NEAR.
The long-standing MyNearWallet has been announced to shut down on 31 October 2026. If you are choosing a wallet now, pick one from the list above.
Moving NEAR to your own wallet
- Set up a wallet that supports NEAR and note the receiving address: a name or a 64-character string
- On the exchange’s withdrawal screen, choose NEAR as the network
- Paste the address and compare it character by character. Whether a named address is accepted depends on the exchange
- Send a small test amount before the full transfer
Keep a separate copy of the private key or seed phrase: the documentation warns that losing it can lock the funds for good.
This section records public figures. We do not recommend trading NEAR or using any particular exchange.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Can NEAR be bought on a Japanese exchange?
Of the two checked in this article, neither OKJ nor bitbank listed NEAR as of 25 September 2026. For other Japanese exchanges, check each one’s list of coins.
Q. Can I send NEAR to a name such as alice.near?
On NEAR’s own chain, the name is the address. Whether an exchange lets you type a name when withdrawing varies, so read the withdrawal screen and send a small test amount first.
Q. Can I earn rewards by staking NEAR?
Yes, by delegating to a validator. The rewards come from new issuance capped at 2.5% a year, and withdrawing takes about 24 hours after unstaking.
In summary
- NEAR is the currency of a blockchain of its own with readable account names, ranked 22nd by market capitalisation
- Fees are paid in NEAR and burned apart from the contract share; issuance is capped at 2.5% a year
- The price rose about 2.5 times in thirty days yet sits about 76% below its peak
- Neither OKJ nor bitbank lists it; spot NEAR trades on overseas exchanges, and Hyperliquid lists NEAR only as a perpetual
💡 Comparing NEAR with the top markets
The markets screen in Hype Trade puts NEAR side by side with the Hyperliquid markets that trade the most. Pressing “Set end price” records the price at that moment, so you can watch how far it moves from there.
The funding plan table works out a position size from the amount you are prepared to lose on one trade, before any order is placed.
(Based on public CoinGecko, Hyperliquid, OKJ and bitbank data and the issuer’s documentation, checked on 25 September 2026 at 18:39 JST. Not a recommendation to buy or sell.)
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