The cryptocurrency market has rebounded over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and many other leading digital assets posting slight gains.
For its part, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) outperformed all competitors in the top 100 clubs, recording an impressive 12% pump.
What fueled the rally and what’s next?
NEAR has been at the forefront of gains lately, with its valuation hitting a monthly high of around $1.45 just a few hours ago. Currently, it is trading at around $1.35 (according to CoinGecko data), which represents a jump of around 40% on a weekly scale. Its market capitalization has surpassed $1.7 billion, making it the 44th largest cryptocurrency and toppling popular altcoins like Bittensor (TAO), Pi Network (PI) and others.
The main catalyst for the rally appears to be the latest technical upgrade announced by the NEAR Protocol team. The project’s official X account revealed that Confidential Intents is live, a feature that allows users to make private DeFi transactions without exposing sensitive details.
“DeFi users, developers, and institutions now unlock a wide range of privacy-focused use cases without giving up their discretion,” the disclosure said.
X user Emperor Osmo argued that NEAR is “fundamentally undervalued,” adding that intentions are driving widespread adoption.
“At the same time, they continue to increase the adoption rate of AI that enables privacy-focused exchanges (Iron Claw). Agent payments are increasing and Near is well positioned to capture much of this flow,” they said.
Michael van de Poppe also praised NEAR, describing it as “simply the best AI protocol in the ecosystem.” He questioned why investors wouldn’t want to add it to their portfolios, adding that from a technical perspective, “it’s the best representation of the current state of altcoins.”
Altcoin Sherpa thinks NEAR “is incredibly strong,” while Sjuul | AltCryptoGems believes 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 fast
Despite the obvious resurgence, NEAR remains well below its all-time high of around $20 seen in early 2022. Meanwhile, some technical indicators suggest a correction may be underway.
The asset’s relative strength index (RSI), which measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes, briefly rose above 70. This means that NEAR has entered overbought territory and could be about to move south. Conversely, ratios below 30 are considered buying opportunities.
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