NEAR Joins Crypto Top 20 After 140% Monthly Surge

NEAR Protocol Surges into Top 20 Cryptocurrencies Amidst Transaction Volume Milestone

NEAR Protocol’s native token has ascended into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, a significant achievement driven by the impressive growth of its NEAR Intents protocol. The token entered this elite group on Thursday, buoyed by a remarkable 138% surge over the past 30 days, according to data from CoinGecko.

At the time of reporting, NEAR was trading at approximately $5.51, marking a roughly 7% increase in the preceding 24 hours. Its market capitalization stood at around $7.2 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume reaching approximately $1.2 billion. This positions NEAR ahead of Stellar (XLM), which currently holds a market capitalization close to $7 billion.

The driving force behind this upward momentum appears to be NEAR Intents, a cross-chain trading protocol that has now processed over $31 billion in cumulative transaction volume, as indicated by the NEAR Intents Explorer.

Further contributing to NEAR’s enhanced market standing is the recent launch of the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product designed to track the token. Introduced on September 29th, the Bitwise fund, trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR, provides investors with an avenue to gain exposure to NEAR without the necessity of directly holding the cryptocurrency.

Despite the positive trajectory, NEAR Intents experienced a security incident last week, involving an exploit that resulted in the loss of $3.8 million from its deposit and withdrawal infrastructure. However, on October 2nd, General Manager Alex Shevchenko confirmed that all stolen funds had been recovered, just one day after the breach was publicly disclosed.