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Web3 Founder of Exponential/Lofi, Trader & Writer
Mert joining the NEAR Protocol Foundation Council is a surprise catalyst for NEAR. After a 20% weekly dip to $4.70 from a $6 high, the next test is whether it bases above $4 or retests $3.04, where the broken trendline, 0.5 Fibonacci retracement and 200-week moving average meet. Even a retest that deep, 37% below here, would hurt but not break the bullish thesis. x.comÂ
NEAR could be the next huge runner after Zcash, with fundamentals tightening its supply. TVL rose from $88 million to $195 million in about three weeks, net inflation is only about 2.5% after burns, roughly 45% of supply is staked, and the token has been fully unlocked since late 2025, leaving no team or VC supply to sell. Already up about 30% this month, a break above $3.50 on enough momentum could accelerate the move. x.comÂ
NEAR's Intents use and new council member support its leg of the Zcash-NEAR barbell. Brian Danga reports that Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, an early NEAR Intents user, joined the NEAR Foundation Council as the protocol reported $33 billion in all-time Intents volume. Both NEAR and Zcash look headed much higher. x.comÂ
Actual use of NEAR Intents, including private swaps, is a bigger positive sign for NEAR than ETF inflows. BSC News reports $5.22 million into Bitwise's NEAR ETF in the latest week; that is still small money. x.comÂ
NEAR is not private, not secure, centralized and not permissionless, as the $3.8 million exploit of NEAR Intents shows. Its popularity is driven by undisclosed paid marketing pushing people to buy a dinosaur coin and a trash chain. x.com x.comÂ
NEAR Intents activity and fees keep accelerating alongside NEAR's price. September intent volume reached a new monthly high of $4.07B, while fees surpassed $7.7M and reached $55M since inception; NEAR rose 156% over the same period. x.comÂ
NEAR's fundamentals are strengthening alongside its price. It generated solid fee revenue in 2025-2026, and Confidential Payments and Confidential Intents are improving privacy and security on the network. After its breakout from a 14-month falling wedge, a break of the $3 resistance would start the next leg up. x.comÂ
NEAR's $2.4 billion market cap already prices it as a major AI and apps layer, so the success of NEAR Intents does not justify the valuation. Intents is a strong bridging product and handled over $200 million of volume in about a day, per @andyyy, but it earns only about $1.5 million in annualized revenue, and valuing NEAR as a bridge is not very bullish. This may be a midcurve take. x.comÂ
NEAR's buyback flywheel is turning: NEAR Intents had its biggest revenue week ever last week, and $500,000 of NEAR was bought back. x.comÂ
NEAR Protocol's launch of private perpetuals trading powered by Hyperliquid is building serious momentum for both NEAR and HYPE. Traders can now open positions without publicly exposing every move, and NEAR rose more than 80% in the seven days after the launch. x.comÂ
NEAR can never be money, so any monetary or privacy premium ascribed to the token will flow to permissionless neutral protocols like Zcash and, to a lesser degree, Monero. NEAR's freezing of funds from the Bitget hack was the right business decision, but it shows that programmability creates governance surface area that is antithetical to money. The NEAR chain made about $150k in 30 days, Intents $1.7M and perps $61k, an insane multiple for something that isn't money. x.com x.com x.comÂ
NEAR could benefit from a fragmented crypto market because Intents earns fees on crosschain liquidity, with some revenue buying NEAR. Intents processed $34.2B across 37 chains; its buyback wallet holds about 1.4M NEAR. Confidential TVL reached $150.3M, up 345% in 90 days, and its 30-day volume share rose to 29%. Private execution could attract larger participants; fee-paying demand from AI agents remains unproven. These on-chain metrics support more appropriate repricing. x.com x.comÂ
