NEAR Surges 20% as Incentives and Privacy Trading Drive Growth
NEAR rose more than 20% in 24 hours to above $4.30 on 21 September, outperforming a broader crypto-market rally led by Bitcoin. Near’s total value locked (TVL) reached a record $256 million, up about 63% during the recent expansion cycle.
The rally was driven by two developments. First, Near activated the initial snapshot for its “NEAR@3.33” milestone incentive after Confidential Intents surpassed $70 million in TVL. Eligible users can receive locked milestone tokens, but conversion into tradable tokens depends on NEAR maintaining a three-day volume-weighted average price of at least $3.33. Since 17 September, Near has attracted almost $65 million in new capital.
Second, near.com launched confidential perpetual futures trading, using NEAR’s privacy infrastructure and Hyperliquid’s liquidity. The platform gives traders access to more than 50 perpetual markets, leverage of up to 40 times and cross-chain collateral settlement in USDC. NEAR Intents has processed around $29.8 billion in cumulative volume across more than 35 blockchains.
Traders should remain cautious. A large share of the new liquidity may be incentive-driven and could leave after the snapshot, token unlocking or VWAP condition is met. NEAR’s revenue is also relatively limited, with approximately $5.24 million in gross revenue and $1.82 million in net revenue over the past 30 days. The token’s rally may also reflect wider privacy-sector rotation linked to Zcash. The short-term outlook is bullish, but sustained gains depend on durable fee revenue, user retention and continued privacy-market demand.
Bullish
The immediate market impact is bullish. NEAR combines a record TVL, nearly $65 million of recent inflows, a conditional incentive programme and the launch of privacy-focused perpetual trading. These catalysts can increase demand for NEAR, attract speculative capital and encourage users to keep assets in the ecosystem while the $3.33 VWAP threshold remains relevant.
The Hyperliquid integration is also constructive because it provides deep existing liquidity instead of requiring Near to build a derivatives market from scratch. Access to cross-chain collateral and confidential trading could improve product adoption and generate fee revenue. Similar to past airdrop-led rallies, however, the initial price response may be stronger than the fundamental impact. Traders often buy ahead of snapshots and sell after eligibility or unlocking events, creating a “buy the rumour, sell the news” risk.
The main risks are incentive-driven TVL withdrawals, limited current revenue, ongoing token emissions and a potential cooling of the privacy narrative. NEAR’s absolute TVL growth remains smaller than that of Ethereum and Solana, while its recent performance may partly reflect broad market expansion and sector rotation linked to Zcash. In the short term, momentum traders may continue to support NEAR, but volatility could rise around the VWAP test, snapshot completion and token conversion. Longer term, the rally will be more sustainable only if confidential derivatives generate recurring fees, retain users and translate into meaningful token value capture.