Key Insights:
- Near Protocol TVL goes parabolic, adds over $100 million in the last 7 days.
- Near intents were behind the surge after striking a RWA partnership with Ondo Finance.
- Privacy takes center stage as confidential intents surpass public intents in terms of TVL.
- NEAR Price pushes deep into overbought territory after delivering its most bullish week in 20 months.
Near protocol is back on crypto news headlines after being overshadowed by its more popular peers. It is back in the spotlight courtesy of its recent surge in activity and the NEAR crypto price reaction over the last few days.
The Near Protocol TVL stayed relatively flat up until the second half of August, after which it ticked higher. However, the TVL metric has been parabolic since 16 September.
DeFiLlama data showed that Near Protocol TVL jumped from about $191 million on Wednesday last week. It clocked $350 million and above on Wednesday this week, signaling robust activity.
Moreover, the TVL surge was accompanied by a spike in daily fees. For example, Near Protocol weekly fees clocked $2 million between 14 and 20 September. Almost double the fees observed in the previous week and about 4 times the fees in the slowest week YTD.
Near Protocol Sees Spike in Intents on the Same Week as the Ondo Deal
The recent spike in activity reflects some recent key developments pertaining to the network. The Near Protocol uses a unique cross-chain transaction protocol in which transactions are known as intents.
Intents are actions performed by both users and AI agents. The number of intents also shot up aggressively over the last few weeks. However, something even more noteworthy was observed.
The number of confidential (private) intents was higher than that of public intents. For context, there were 113.2 million confidential intents and 110.4 million public intents on Monday.
This was a noteworthy observation because it suggests that privacy is taking center stage in Near Protocol transactions. This was yet another clear indicator that the privacy trend is gaining popularity this year.
At the core of that performance, the Near Protocol may be about to experience even more network activity. This is courtesy of a recent integration with Ondo Finance, announced on Tuesday. According to the announcement, this collaboration will bring tokenized stocks and ETFs into the Near ecosystem.
NEAR Crypto Pulls Off Steep Vertical
Near protocol’s recent wins were also accompanied by robust bullish activity around its native cryptocurrency. The NEAR price also achieved an impressive rally over the last few days.
To put things into perspective, its strong mid-month momentum saw it rally from as low as $2.29 on 16 September to as high as $4.8 on 23 September. This was a 110% rally in less than 10 days.
Such a strong bullish performance signals robust demand. The kind that is usually driven by major catalyst events. The NEAR price retreated to $4.26 at press time.
NEAR crypto’s latest rally pushed it to levels last seen in February 2025. Although it has reclaimed losses over the last 20 months, it is still a long way from its historic high above $20.
While this suggests that it could still continue rallying, the cryptocurrency was extremely overbought at press time. A bit of a cool-off may therefore be on the cards.
In summary, the partnership between Near Protocol and Ondo Finance marks the latest positive development. It underscores the network’s push into one of the top narratives of the current crypto season.
Whether this fresh push into ETFs and tokenized assets will fuel more bullish momentum remains to be seen. However, the network’s alignment with these key narratives may continue to support the long-term outlook.
