The native token of Near Protocol experienced a significant rally, climbing nearly 80% over the past week. By Monday, the asset was trading at approximately $4.29, marking a 78.2% increase over seven days and a 22% rise within 24 hours. This performance notably outperformed the broader cryptocurrency market, which saw a 6% capitalization growth during the same period.
Near Protocol has enhanced its privacy features, making deposits and withdrawals for perpetual futures on near.com confidential by default. This update conceals the connection between a user's funding wallet and their Hyperliquid trading account. Additionally, the platform's confidential total value locked surpassed $70 million, activating the initial snapshot for the NEAR@3.33 incentive program.
The incentive program has set aside 333,333 milestone tokens for distribution. These tokens are scheduled to unlock and convert to NEAR once the three-day volume-weighted average price hits at least $3.33. The network's cross-chain swap service, NEAR Intents, has recorded a cumulative volume of $29.3 billion, with $842 million processed in the last seven days.
The Zcash ecosystem has become a key contributor to NEAR Intents, with the ZODL wallet serving as a major referral source. Recent data shows $3.8 million in volume from 458 transactions over 24 hours, including a single swap involving roughly $613,000 in ZEC. Analysts note that Near provides ZEC holders with confidential cross-chain infrastructure and liquidity access.
Beyond trading, Near is expanding its privacy initiatives into the artificial intelligence sector. In July, the company launched staking-based payments through NEAR AI. This system allows users to stake NEAR tokens to earn credits for confidential AI inference and agent hosting, while the users maintain full ownership of their staked assets.
