NEAR Protocol has spent the last several months quietly rebuilding its pitch to the market. The layer-1 blockchain, which has championed sharded scalability via its Nightshade technology since mainnet launched over five years ago, is now angling to become the default rails for AI agents conducting commerce across chains.
The market seems to be buying the thesis. The $NEAR token has climbed roughly 115% over the 90-day period leading up to late May 2026, with weekly surges exceeding 50% and daily trading volumes peaking above $1B following key announcements.
What actually changed
Three things happened in relatively quick succession, and each one added fuel to the rally.
First, NEAR completed its Halving Upgrade in Q4 2025. That cut the protocol’s maximum annual inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%, a significant shift given that the token supply is now fully unlocked.
