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The NEAR Protocol (NEAR) blockchain has expanded the lineup of regulated U.S. crypto investment products, following funds focused on Solana and XRP. Bitwise listed the spot Bitwise NEAR ETF on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR, with an annual fee of 0.75%.
The main source of debate in the financial community was not the listing itself, but the 40-page research report Bitwise published alongside it. In the report, Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan and Head of European Research André Dragosch presented a mathematical model under which the token could reach $562.81 by 2030 in an optimistic scenario.
How Bitwise calculates a path for NEAR to reach $562 and catch up with Solana
The market reacted immediately. TradingView's daily NEAR/USD chart showed a parabolic rise in September 2026, with the price breaking above key moving averages and showing strong momentum near $4.99. The sharp rise suggests that major investors have begun pricing in a new role for the project: a leading "coordination layer" for the emerging global AI economy.
Unlike Ethereum, NEAR's tokenomics are shifting toward serving AI agents. Using what they describe as a conservative SaaS valuation approach, with a 50x price-to-sales multiple, the analysts calculated a $562.81 target in their Max Case scenario for 2030. This would require the network to capture 3% of the global AI agent market, or about 950 million agents, and serve them much as Visa serves payments.
If centralized giants such as OpenAI prevail instead, the report sets out a bearish scenario in which the token falls to $1.63.
Investors are already assessing potential inflows by looking at other Bitwise products. Cumulative net inflows currently stand at $1.23 billion for the Bitwise Solana fund, $677 million for the Bitwise XRP fund and $148 million for the ecosystem-focused Bitwise BHYP.
Against this backdrop, the NEAR product occupies a distinct AI-crypto niche and offers staking of the underlying tokens with a yield of around 5% annually.
Given that NEAR ranks second worldwide by active addresses, with 47 million, and is seeing rapid growth in transaction volume through NEAR Intents, analysts expect the new product to have a chance of eventually matching XRP's pace of attracting capital.
The listing gives institutional investors a way to make a long-term bet on whether control of AI will shift from Silicon Valley to decentralized networks.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
