NEAR Rallies After Short Squeeze and Breaks Multi‑Year Trendline

Overview

• NEAR jumped about 26.5% to roughly $2.19 after a short squeeze forced approximately $5.8 million in short liquidations on Friday, sending 24‑hour volume to about $825 million and market capitalization to near $2.84 billion.
• The token pierced a multi‑year descending trendline for the first time since the 2024 peak and open interest rose above $473 million, prompting bullish technical targets with key resistance around $2.80–$3.25.
• Analysts pointed to NEAR’s AI privacy tools, Trusted Execution Environments and its 'Agentic Web' and intents work plus strong NVIDIA earnings as reasons traders are rotating into AI‑linked crypto projects.
• On‑chain usage lags the rally: daily active addresses fell from nearly 3 million earlier this year to about 266,000, a decline that raises questions about demand sustainability beneath the price move.
• Protocol changes that cut annual inflation from 5% to 2.5% and direct fees into buybacks reduce issuance pressure but will likely require confirmed weekly technical closes or rising network activity to support a lasting uptrend.