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NEAR Protocol recorded a 21% surge in the past 24 hours as Worldcoin and a wider surge in AI infrastructure tokens channeled over $345 million in inflows, according to Crypto.news. The NEAR token posted an intraday high of $2.57. This marks its strongest point since March. It pushed ahead of major layer-1 rivals in both price momentum and technical upgrades. Worldcoin jumped 25% in the same period.
The $345 million flowing into AI tokens wasn’t spontaneous.
Why are NEAR and AI tokens leading today
AI sector tokens received more than $345 million in daily net inflows. This signals a surge far above baseline activity for DeFi or gaming coins. During this watershed session, Worldcoin, Render, and Bittensor each delivered gains of 18%–25%. These returns easily beat the performance of the CoinMarketCap Top 10 index for May 22. That outsized momentum could not be matched by legacy smart contract platforms or payments coins, which lagged even as in total crypto sentiment rebounded. Data show the largest beneficiaries were projects with recent major upgrades — including NEAR Protocol. NEAR gained clear first-mover advantage in privacy and decentralized AI features.
What is driving the divergence with edgeX
NEAR’s mainnet throughput hit 4,500 transactions per second in recent benchmarking, according to Banklesstimes. That surpassed edgeX’s 2,200 TPS and doubled NEAR’s previous capacity. At the same time, developer activity on NEAR soared 38% month-over-month. This far outpaced edgeX’s modest 7% monthly growth.
| Protocol | 24h Price Change | Throughput (TPS) | Developer Growth (MoM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEAR | +21% | 4,500 | +38% |
| Worldcoin | +25% | 3,900 | +31% |
| edgeX | -3% | 2,200 | +7% |
Why is NEAR Price Up Today? The Catalysts Explained
NEAR’s 21% surge was powered by two headline protocol upgrades in May. These upgrades are Nightshade Sharding v2 and a new private smart contract layer based on zero-knowledge cryptography. Nightshade v2 expanded network scalability by over 60%.
$113 million — Cross-Chain TVL Surge (May 19–21)
NEAR Foundation’s $30 million developer grant program accelerated interest by seeding five project teams with over $4 million in capital within weeks. This fast capital deployment incentivized builders. It also created positive feedback between protocol upgrades and network effect. Cross-chain expansion became another driving force. The Wormhole bridge, which went live on May 19, rapidly lowered friction for liquidity movement between Solana, Ethereum, and NEAR. More than $113 million in cross-chain total value locked (TVL) was logged in the first 48 hours.
NEAR Protocol Price Prediction: Elliott Wave Eyes $2.87 as Next Target
Chart-based forecasters using the Elliott Wave model expect $2.87–$3.05 as the next meaningful upside target. This prediction is contingent on NEAR maintaining daily closes above $2.40. These models base their gains on the persistence of sector-wide AI inflows and bullish funding rates across perpetual swaps. According to CoinMarketCap’s historical trading datasets, past NEAR rallies above 18% in a single day typically produced further five-session gains.
Three $NEAR Protocol upgrades
Three technical upgrades in May formed the backbone of NEAR’s price action and developer resurgence. Nightshade Sharding v2 doubled peak network scalability. The newly integrated zkWASM privacy layer became the first on NEAR mainnet to enable privacy-preserving smart contracts for machine learning data. Next, the Wormhole bridge unlocked frictionless cross-chain liquidity to Solana, Ethereum, and Aptos.
- Nightshade Sharding v2:More than 4,500 TPS unlocked for intensive AI workloads on-chain.
- zkWASM:The first privacy layer for machine learning and sensitive computation on NEAR mainnet.
- Wormhole:Enables seamless asset bridging between Solana, Ethereum, and Aptos. This accelerates TVL growth.
Daily smart contract calls jumped by 41% after May 10.
What is the latest news on NEAR?
On May 21, NEAR Foundation revealed a partnership with SingularityNET to launch federated AI model training and decentralized compute protocols.
The grant pool, initially set at $30 million, saw $36 million in applications by May 22.
The foundation also confirmed partnerships with university research labs to support curriculum and research on real-world AI and machine learning protocols. The $2.8 million in university grants focuses on creating public-private pipelines for on-chain AI development.
Deep Dive
Crypto market price action often amplifies winners through reflexive flows and a “fat tail” distribution of gains. AI-specific token capitalization soared $1.2 billion from May 19–23, led by NEAR, Worldcoin, and Bittensor, according to crypto.news.
As regulatory headwinds in the US and Europe target legacy protocols, capital is flowing faster into technologies and networks able to adapt.
Momentum for NEAR and its ecosystem partners shows no sign of slowing if grant disbursal, technical partnerships, and real transaction volumes continue at their current pace. Published research shows that if NEAR maintains high daily active addresses through Q2 2026, overall on-chain activity will exceed prior quarterly records by over 20%.
Full List: Everything New on NEAR Protocol in May 2026
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| May 8 — Nightshade v2 Upgrade [Mainnet] | NEAR’s throughput doubles to power AI workloads. |
| May 10 — zkWASM Mainnet Launch | Privacy layer for sensitive machine learning deployments activated. This upgrade boosted on-chain data security. |
| May 13 — $4M in Developer Grants Deployed | AI/ML project teams were awarded seed capital by NEAR programs. |
| May 17 — Staking Participation Breaks Record | Entrants rushed to lock tokens. Network security increased. |
| May 19 — Wormhole Bridge Integration | Easy token swaps opened between Solana, Ethereum, Aptos. This fueled liquidity inflow. |
| May 20 — $113M Cross-Chain TVL Surge | Capital rebounded into NEAR infrastructure, raising the ecosystem’s base liquidity. |
| May 21 — AI Partnership Announced (SingularityNET) | Three cross-chain AI protocols are now in development for Q3 2026. |
| May 22 — $36M in Grant Applications | Global developer demand exceeds program capacity. This sets up competitive funding. |
| May 22 — NEAR Hits $2.57 High | 21% rally cements NEAR at the front of L1 protocol competition. |
Leaving NEAR Protocol Ecosystem in May 2026
- edgeX external bridge support ended May 14. Resources shifted to Wormhole cross-chain infrastructure.
- Nightshade v1 was deprecated on May 8 with the v2 mainnet upgrade. Older dApps are required to migrate by June 1 to maintain compatibility.
- Legacy oracle data feeds were retired as of May 16. NEAR is shifting to an in-house oracle solution for greater integration and speed.
[Essential] Glossary section added for technical jargon
Glossary: Central Blockchain Terms
- zkWASM:A privacy technology that combines zero-knowledge proofs with WebAssembly (WASM). It lets smart contracts process data privately.
- Nightshade Sharding v2:An upgrade to NEAR that increases scalability by dividing the network into smaller parts, called shards.
- Zero-knowledge cryptography:A cryptographic method enabling one party to prove something is true without revealing the underlying data.
- Smart Contract:Self-executing code stored on a blockchain that runs when certain conditions are met.
- TPS:Transactions Per Second. A measure of how many transactions a blockchain can process every second.
- TVL (Total Value Locked):The amount of assets deposited in a blockchain protocol or ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
Sarah Williams is a blockchain technology editor and investigative journalist with 6 years of dedicated crypto reporting. Formerly an editor at CoinDesk, Sarah has broken stories on exchange insolvencies, DeFi exploits, and regulatory enforcement actions. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT and contributes to the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Sarah is a frequent speaker at Consensus, Token2049, and ETHGlobal events.
Conflicts of interest
I hold no positions in any cryptocurrency mentioned in my coverage. All investment-related content is reviewed by senior editors before publication. I am not compensated by any project I cover.
