The cryptocurrency market has rebounded over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and many other leading digital assets posting slight increases.
For its part, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) outperformed every competitor in the top 100 club, registering an impressive 12% pump.
What Fueled the Rally and What’s Next?
NEAR has been at the forefront of gains lately, with its valuation rising to a monthly peak of around $1.45 just several hours ago. Currently, it trades at around $1.35 (per CoinGecko’s data), representing a roughly 40% jump on a weekly scale. Its market capitalization has surpassed $1.7 billion, making it the 44th-largest cryptocurrency and flipping popular altcoins like Bittensor (TAO), Pi Network (PI), and others.
The main catalyst for the rally seems to be the latest technical upgrade announced by NEAR Protocol’s team. The project’s official X account revealed that Confidential Intents is live, a feature that lets users make private DeFi transactions without exposing sensitive details.
“DeFi users, developers, and institutions now unlock a wide range of privacy-first use cases without forgoing discretion,” the disclosure reads.
X user Emperor Osmo argued that NEAR is “fundamentally undervalued,” adding that Intents are generating widespread adoption.
“Meanwhile, they continue to increase the rate of adoption under which AI enables privacy-first trading (Iron Claw). Agentic payments are scaling, and Near is positioned to capture a lot of that flow,” they stated.
Michael van de Poppe also spoke highly of NEAR, describing it as “simply the best AI protocol in the ecosystem.” He wondered why investors wouldn’t want to add it to their portfolios, adding that from a technical standpoint, “it’s the best representation of the current status of altcoins.”
Altcoin Sherpa believes NEAR “is insanely strong,” while Sjuul | AltCryptoGems thinks the asset is trying to print “a cup and handle” formation on its price chart. This pattern consists of a rounded bottom (cup) and a small pullback on the right side (handle), and together they usually signal a bullish setup.
Not so Quick
Despite the evident resurgence, NEAR remains far below its all-time high of around $20 witnessed at the start of 2022. Meanwhile, certain technical indicators suggest a correction could be on the way.
The asset’s Relative Strength Index (RSI), which measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes, has briefly climbed past 70. This means that NEAR has entered overbought territory and could be on the verge of a move south. Conversely, ratios below 30 are considered buying opportunities.
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