NEAR Hits One-Year High, Outpaces Bitcoin After Bitwise Files Final Prospectus For Spot ETF

• NEAR surged over 7% Sunday as Bitwise’s spot NEAR ETF cleared final listing hurdles.
• Bitcoin gained just 0.6% over the same period, lagging ETF-driven altcoin momentum.
• The proposed ETF plans to stake NEAR holdings, passing most rewards to investors.

Near Protocol (NEAR) climbed to its highest level in one year on Sunday, outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader altcoin market, days after Bitwise filed the final prospectus for a spot NEAR exchange-traded fund (ETF).

NEAR’s price was trading around $5 over the past 24 hours. Those developments moved the token fast. NEAR gained more than 7% on the day, then added another leg on Sunday. In comparison, the largest cryptocurrency, or Bitcoin’s price, managed only a 0.6% increase over the same stretch and has not yet recovered the $85,000 range it gave up earlier in the week. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around both NEAR and BTC remained in the ‘bullish’ zone.

NEAR’s one-year return climbed to about 96% after turning positive in mid-September, having sat as much as 60% in the red in February. 

Bitwise NEAR ETF Gets Green Light

The catalyst arrived on Thursday, when Bitwise filed the final prospectus for its spot NEAR fund. The $NEAR ETF has since been cleared to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca under the ticker “NRR.” The registration statement was effective under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act, and the fund is expected to begin trading next week, pending final filings.

The trust intended to stake all of its NEAR, according to the prospectus, and pass most of the proceeds to shareholders. Staking expenses would take 33% of the additional NEAR generated, split among the staking agents, the custodian, and the sponsor. The trust will keep roughly 67%. The trust will pay Bitwise a 0.75% annual sponsor fee.

Trader Trims Into Strength

Not everyone was chasing this momentum, though. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe, one of the token's louder bulls, said he was cutting exposure to the rally. "I don't think we'll see much more upside yet, and I'm looking to derisk a little more here in these ranges," he said in a post on X. Anyone building a long-term position should wait, he added. "Just wait for a correction to come. It will come."

His longer view was far more aggressive. In a separate post, van de Poppe put his base case for NEAR above $150 and his bull case above $550, both multi-year calls rather than targets for this move.

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