Bitwise Asset Management has introduced the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product tied directly to NEAR Protocol’s native token. The Bitwise NEAR ETF began trading on NYSE Arca on September 29 under the ticker NRR with a 0.75% management fee. Unlike futures-based products, NRR holds NEAR outright, meaning share creation and redemption can create direct demand for the underlying spot token through brokerage and institutional channels.
The fund incorporates a staking component. Bitwise said the annualized NEAR staking reward was approximately 5% as of September 25, but emphasized that the return is not guaranteed. Staking rewards accrue to the fund’s net asset value rather than being paid as a fixed yield. The structure introduces additional risks, including slashing, operational complexity, and liquidity constraints if staked tokens are unavailable during redemptions.
Bitwise’s launch comes as NEAR Intents, the network’s cross-chain transaction protocol, reported accelerating usage. NearStats data showed $130.7 million in 24-hour volume, an $859.9 million seven-day run rate, $4.59 billion over 30 days, and cumulative transaction volume above $35 billion. Bitwise separately noted that NEAR Intents has processed more than $32 billion in cumulative volume, up from under $1 billion a year earlier. The protocol is designed to let users and autonomous software agents execute swaps and payments without manually routing each transaction, a capability the asset manager sees becoming more relevant as AI agents begin handling financial activity.
On the market side, NEAR traded in a $4.97–$5.10 range after recovering from a short-term dip to $4.62. The Bitwise NEAR ETF recorded a daily net inflow of $2.61 million, lifting cumulative inflows to $83.05 million, with net assets under management at $82.36 million, or about 1.26% of NEAR’s total market capitalization. The network also reported that confidential transaction demand accounted for 9.4% of NEAR Intents’ monthly volume, with roughly $91.9 million in protected flows, much of it involving direct cross-chain transfers between Zcash and Bitcoin. The ecosystem’s confidential total value locked settled in the $151–$152 million range.
NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin confirmed that users can migrate NEAR account keys to the post-quantum ML-DSA standard without moving funds or using third-party bridges. The decentralized MPC computation system has expanded to 17 independent operators, helping stabilize block generation, while NEAR transactions complete in about 1.2 seconds. Bitwise said the network has maintained 100% uptime for six years. The U.S. product follows Bitwise’s existing European staking ETP and extends its single-asset crypto lineup, which also includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Hyperliquid products. As of June 30, 2026, Bitwise managed about $9 billion in client assets.
