Near Protocol’s NEAR token fell roughly 6% over the past 24 hours to about $1.68, slipping toward its daily low of $1.66 as broader sentiment cooled across majors. The move pushed the Near Protocol Price back toward levels not seen since early in the month, even as the network posted some of its most significant technical milestones to date.
NEAR’s market cap now sits near $2.15 billion, with trading volume rising more than 10%, a sign that the downturn attracted participation rather than apathy. Meanwhile, the decline stands in contrast to fundamental progress across the ecosystem, including the nearcore v2.10 rollout and the introduction of deterministic account IDs and sharded smart contracts on mainnet.
Fundamentals Continue to Strengthen on NEAR
The upgrade arrives just days after Near Protocol crypto achieved a public, verifiable benchmark of 1 million transactions per second, running on consumer-grade Google Cloud hardware. Most of the code powering that result is already live on mainnet, reinforcing NEAR’s positioning for high-load applications and the emerging AI-driven economy.
Ecosystem momentum also accelerates with the December 15 launch of $NPRO, the NEAR Mobile Wallet token. Tens of thousands of users will be able to claim rewards, unlock Ambassador and Premium tiers, and trade NPRO via Rhea Finance and NEAR Intents.
A staged buyback mechanism, funded by roughly 30,000 NEAR from pre-staking, will apply consistent demand pressure during the first two weeks of trading.
Beyond token launches, governance research on NEAR expands through a new collaboration between Stanford OpenLab and NEAR House of Stake, focusing on AI-native decision-making, privacy-preserving computation, and verifiable agent-based voting.
Near Protocol Price Shows Clear Downside Bias
The NEAR Price continues to trade defensively after another 24-hour slide, drifting from the $1.80 area toward support at $1.66. TradingView indicators remain firmly bearish, with 14 sell signals across moving averages and a negative MACD, indicating momentum still points lower. The RSI in the upper 30s reflects weakening trend strength but not the type of oversold reading that typically tempts disciplined buyers back in.
However, Michaël van de Poppe took a different angle in his recent chart update, arguing that NEAR Coin has returned to its lowest valuation since October 10 and November 23, a level that historically acted as a pivot for short-term rebounds.
He frames the recent pullback as part of an accumulation pattern, noting a tightening range just below the 20-day moving average. In his view, holding this zone while NEAR Intents activity grows at triple-digit monthly rates suggests underlying demand may be stronger than price implies.
In the chart he shared, the Near Protocol price is pressing against a narrow band of support with declining volatility, while the 20-day MA hangs directly above as the first ceiling. Poppe argues that reclaiming the 20-day MA would signal a trend shift rather than noise.
His key trigger is $1.95, the lower boundary of the previous consolidation range. A daily close above that level, he says, places NEAR Coin “back in the range,” opening a technical path toward the next resistance zone near $3, which his chart shades as the prior distribution block.
But viewed against broader indicators, his thesis relies heavily on the assumption that buyers will defend current lows. All major EMAs remain angled down, and momentum has yet to confirm a reversal.
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