CryptoPotato • October 8th 2026, 6:38 PM
NEAR Cracks the Top 20: Why Bitwise’s Matt Hougan Is Paying Attention
Key Summary
NEAR Protocol's native token has surged, pushing into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, despite the crypto market's cooling momentum. Bitwise's Matt Hougan highlights the project's business activity and revenue, despite criticism that it's not being used mainly by AI agents today. NEAR's Intents product has processed over $30 billion in cumulative volume and is on track to generate $45 million in fees this year.
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Business Activity
NEAR calls itself the blockchain for AI, with a long-term goal to become the infrastructure for AI agents. Despite criticism that it's not being used mainly by AI agents today, the project is building a business that is already generating real activity and revenue. NEAR Intents has processed over $30 billion in cumulative volume and is on track to generate $45 million in fees this year.Key Milestones
NEAR rose 198% in the third quarter, well ahead of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The project's business is developing, with Intents allowing users to move across crypto networks without the complexity of wallets, bridges, and exchanges. A network of market-making bots, known as solvers, handles the transactions behind the scenes.Incident and Recovery
NEAR Intents suffered a security exploit on Thursday, resulting in around $3.8 million in losses. The incident was due to a bug involving the Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the NEAR Intents smart contract. The vulnerability has since been patched, and the project said affected users will be fully reimbursed for their losses.#NEAR#US#Crypto#AI