@Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) sees the NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) token $NEAR as a way to invest in blockchain infrastructure for AI-driven commerce. The fir
@Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) sees the NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) token $NEAR as a way to invest in blockchain infrastructure for AI-driven commerce. The firm's NEAR ETF, ticker NRR, pairs spot NEAR exposure with staking rewards. Separately, SVRN chief executive Sal Ternullo (@sal_ternullo) says his company aims to accumulate 10% of NEAR's token supply.
Both strategies rest on the same question: whether AI-related activity on NEAR can produce revenue and demand for the token.
Bitwise launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR), the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product providing direct exposure to NEAR, with trading starting Sept. 29 on NYSE Arca.The fund carries a 0.75% management fee and is designed to track the price of NEAR while also participating in staking.
Bitwise intends to stake NRR's NEAR holdings through its institutional staking team, with rewards increasing the fund's net asset value rather than being paid out separately to shareholders.The company cited an annualized staking reward rate of around 5% at launch, but said the figure is based on network data and does not represent fund performance or guarantee future rewards.Fund materials also warn that staking may expose the product to potential penalties, operational issues and delays in satisfying redemptions.
On redemptions, Hougan pointed to NEAR's relatively short unstaking period, extended settlement arrangements for market makers and additional liquidity capabilities for extreme conditions.
SVRN is taking a different route. Its stated long-term goal is to accumulate 10% of NEAR's token supply, equivalent to one in every 10 tokens.In August, the company said it held 55.5 million NEAR.
The company also runs operating businesses around the network. SVRN operates six white-labeled validators and has made the Fastnear acquisition.Nasdaq-listed SVRN said on Oct. 8 that it had acquired FastNEAR, a provider of RPC infrastructure for NEAR Protocol. Financial terms were not disclosed.FastNEAR operates RPC servers, archival infrastructure holding NEAR's complete transaction history and the NEARDATA developer feed, serving more than 3.5 billion requests a month, according to the announcement.
Ternullo described Fastnear as a cash-generating infrastructure business.
The AI thesis is still largely prospective. Ternullo said NEAR Intents had processed more than $34 billion in volume, with roughly 98% of interactions still human-driven, leaving AI-agent commerce largely an opportunity ahead.The investment question is whether that activity produces economic value for token holders.
Investors should also note that NRR does not offer direct exposure to AI companies. The ETF's underlying asset is NEAR itself.Bitwise warns that NRR carries substantial volatility and could result in significant or complete loss.
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