Near Protocol’s native token surged more than 22% in the last 24 hours, extending a multi-week rally as AI-focused narratives and liquidity dynamics drive demand for decentralized AI infrastructure assets. Data from CoinGecko show NEAR climbing from about $1.25 earlier this month to roughly $2.15 on May 22, placing the token well above its monthly trough and marking a gain of more than 70% from that low.
The move was underscored by a pronounced short-squeeze signal: derivatives data point to a squeeze that caught bearish traders offside as NEAR cleared a key resistance trendline near $1.72. Coinglass’s liquidation charts show nearly $5.8 million in shorts wiped out of a total around $6.1 million in positions over the past 24 hours, with more than $2.4 million of short positions liquidated in a four-hour window after the breakout through the resistance. Forced buybacks from those liquidations added immediate demand, while sell-side liquidity thinned during the rally.
The fresh momentum followed a broader AI-driven market rotation sparked by NVIDIA’s first-quarter FY2027 earnings report, released May 20. The chipmaker posted quarterly revenue of $81.6 billion and profits of $58.3 billion, representing an 85% year-over-year jump in revenue. On the earnings call, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said, “Agentic AI has arrived,” underscoring intensifying competition among AI model developers around compute efficiency and token generation. In the wake of NVIDIA’s results, trading activity rotated toward AI-related crypto projects, with NEAR emerging as a notable beneficiary due to its potential role in decentralized AI infrastructure.
Near Protocol’s enterprise-focused AI tooling expansion also fed the rally. The project has introduced automatic anonymisation of personally identifiable information (PII) in AI prompts, enabling developers to strip passwords, API keys, and other sensitive data before requests are routed to external large language models such as ChatGPT or Claude. The system runs confidential inference tasks through Trusted Execution Environments powered by NVIDIA’s H200 and B200 GPUs, addressing privacy and data-security concerns that businesses are weighing as they integrate generative AI into customer-facing systems.
Key takeaways
- Price move: NEAR rose more than 22% in 24 hours, extending a multi-week uptrend.
- Catalyst: A pronounced short squeeze amid a broader AI market rotation, helped by a breach of a key resistance level near $1.72.
- Implications: The rally aligns NEAR with AI infrastructure narratives and demonstrates how cross-chain and enterprise tooling rollouts can attract capital to layer-1 ecosystems.
What drove the move
Beyond the close technical breakout, several fundamental developments supported the bid for NEAR. The liquidity dynamic around the rally showed a squeeze in short bets that fed into a self-reinforcing price move, with price action pushing into the $2.10–$2.20 zone after breaking the March–mid-May resistance. Volume expanded during the breakout, suggesting participation from real buyers rather than purely speculators attempting to exploit stale liquidity.
The AI narrative has been a persistent driver for a broad cohort of crypto assets, and NEAR sits at the intersection of decentralized AI futures and scalable cross-chain integration. The NEAR Intents framework, which aims to simplify cross-chain settlement and automate certain interaction layers across blockchains, has been a focal point for investors seeking exposure to AI-enabled decentralized applications. Recent ecosystem developments include the expansion of cross-chain settlement functionality that some projects use as a backend for multi-chain trades, a trend that has been supportive of NEAR’s growth trajectory.
From a supply-side perspective, the project has made changes to its tokenomics intended to support sustainable inflation and on-chain economics. A governance proposal approved in late 2025 reduced NEAR’s maximum annual inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%, reducing new token issuance. In addition, since February 2026, fees generated through the NEAR Intents cross-chain settlement system have been converted programmatically into NEAR tokens, creating a direct source of open-market buying tied to ecosystem activity. These changes, paired with rising network activity, have contributed to a constructive backdrop for the token.
On the usage front, Near Protocol has reported stronger ecosystem metrics, with total value locked increasing more than 120% year over year and developer activity rising more than 40% in the same period, according to ecosystem data published by the project. The growth in activity aligns with investor expectations that NEAR’s architecture will underpin more AI-enabled workflows and cross-chain integrations, reinforcing its role as a backbone for decentralized AI services.
Market reaction and risk signals
From a technical standpoint, the four-hour chart shows a forceful breakout with price clearing the prior multi-month resistance and pressing into the $2.10–$2.20 area. RSI on the four-hour timeframe sits near 88, indicating an overbought condition by traditional momentum measures, while the moving-average trend remains bullish. Chaikin Money Flow sits positive around 0.23, suggesting ongoing capital inflows despite the rapid acceleration. A sustained CMF above zero generally indicates that buyers remain active beyond mere liquidity spikes.
The candle patterns accompanying the breakout have closed near the highs with limited upper wicks, a sign that buying pressure persisted through the period. However, the vertical nature of the rally raises the risk of pullbacks or consolidation as traders seek to form new support levels. With liquidity thinning on the upside and a lack of intermediate support zones, a near-term pullback could sharpen if momentum cools, though the longer-term thesis remains tied to AI infrastructure value and cross-chain adoption.
Investors are also weighing the broader macro environment, including how AI-enabled platforms perform in enterprise contexts and how cross-chain settlement technologies scale. The pace of NEAR’s ecosystem expansion and the durability of its monetization levers will be critical in determining whether the current price move sustains itself beyond a near-term squeeze.
Bigger picture
NEAR’s rally sits within a broader trend of investors pricing in AI-enabled capabilities as a structural driver for blockchain ecosystems. The “Agentic Web” concept—where autonomous AI agents manage payments, coordination, identities, and cross-chain interactions—has drawn interest as decentralized applications increasingly rely on AI-powered workflows. Given that NEAR’s founders have backgrounds in AI research, traders have grouped the token with other AI-linked digital assets during periods of sector strength.
In parallel, ecosystem developments such as the CoW Swap expansion to Solana, using NEAR Intents as a backend settlement layer for cross-chain execution, illustrate one practical channel through which NEAR could generate incremental usage and transaction flow. The combination of enterprise-facing tooling, privacy-focused AI prompt handling, and robust cross-chain capabilities positions NEAR as a potential beneficiary of AI-driven infrastructure demand, even as the sector remains volatile and sensitive to short-term sentiment shifts.
As the AI narrative continues to shape investor expectations, Near Protocol watchers will focus on continued adoption metrics, updates to NEAR Intents and cross-chain services, and any further tokenomic changes. Market participants will also monitor how the company monetizes its growing ecosystem and whether the rally translates into sustained network activity and on-chain value accumulation.
The post Why is Near protocol price going up? appeared first on Invezz.
