- AI developments helped push NEAR Protocol trading volume over $1 billion.
- The price of NEAR coin broke above a multi-year bearish trendline.
- Eyes are now on the support at $2.20 and the resistance at $2.30 for the next move.
NEAR Protocol surged nearly 29% in the last 24 hours, making it one of the strongest-performing large-cap cryptocurrencies in the market today.
The rally pushed the token to around $2.26 after trading as low as $1.73 earlier in the day.
NEAR’s trading activity also climbed sharply, with daily volume approaching $1 billion as momentum accelerated across major exchanges.
The reason why the Near Protocol coin price is rising
One of the biggest drivers behind the latest Near Protocol price jump is the growing interest in AI-focused blockchain projects.
NEAR Protocol has increasingly been associated with the AI sector due to its recent product developments, including AI integrations, intent-based transactions, and tools designed for autonomous agents.
The project recently highlighted progress around its NEAR Legion project.
The concept focuses on allowing AI agents to interact with blockchain networks, execute transactions, and coordinate activities without requiring constant human input.
This narrative has gained traction as the broader technology sector shifts attention toward agentic AI systems.
Notably, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly discussed the growing role of agentic AI in future software and computing systems.
That trend has spilled over into the crypto market, where traders are now looking at blockchain networks that could support machine-to-machine transactions and decentralised AI infrastructure.
NEAR Protocol has also expanded its Intents framework, which simplifies cross-chain interactions and transaction execution.
The technology is designed to let users or AI agents specify desired outcomes rather than manually executing every transaction step.
The market has responded positively to this development because it addresses one of crypto’s biggest problems: user experience.
Another development that attracted attention this week was the launch of PII anonymisation tools by NEAR AI.
The feature is designed to improve privacy for large language model applications by protecting sensitive information before it reaches AI systems.
Privacy-focused AI infrastructure has become an important discussion point as companies and developers face growing concerns around data protection and compliance.
The AI angle around NEAR carries additional weight because of the project’s leadership.
NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin previously co-authored the “Attention Is All You Need” research paper, which introduced the Transformer architecture that powers modern AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Analysts have increasingly pointed to this connection as evidence that NEAR’s AI strategy is more than just branding.
Technical breakout and short liquidations accelerated the rally
Beyond the AI narrative, technical factors also played a major role in today’s rally.
NEAR recently broke above a multi-year descending trendline that had capped its price since the 2022 bear market.
Analysts had been watching the $1.90 resistance zone closely because it acted as a ceiling during several previous recovery attempts.
Once the token moved above that level, buying momentum accelerated rapidly.
The breakout was accompanied by a sharp rise in trading volume, which is often viewed as confirmation that a move has strong market participation behind it.
NEAR also reclaimed several major moving averages during the rally, improving the token’s overall technical structure.
Short liquidations added further fuel to the move. Data from derivatives markets showed that most crypto liquidations tied to NEAR over the past 24 hours came from short positions.
As the price continued to rise, traders betting against the token were forced to buy back their positions, creating additional upward pressure.
NEAR price forecast
The Near Protocol token has gained nearly 60% in the last 30 days and is now up more than 43% over the past week.
However, despite the rally, NEAR remains far below its all-time high of $20.44 reached in January 2022.
The token is currently trading about 89% below that peak, although it has recovered more than 325% from its all-time low recorded in November 2020.
Moving ahead, the first major support zone sits around $2.20.
Holding above this level could help maintain bullish momentum in the near term. Below that, the $1.90 area remains important because it previously acted as a breakout resistance zone.
On the upside, the immediate resistance range sits between $2.30 and $2.40 after the latest surge stalled near those levels.
A decisive move above that region could open the door toward the psychological $3.00 level, which many traders are now monitoring as the next major target.
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