NEAR Protocol news

NEAR Business, an invite-only platform launched October 20, aims to bring corporate treasuries onchain by offering confidential payments and treasury management across over 35 blockchains. The platform has already attracted several million dollars in assets, with interest from layer 1 foundations and startups. NEAR's VP of growth, Harshit Tiwari, emphasized that confidentiality should be the default, as public blockchains expose financial activity to competitors and attackers. The platform keeps transaction details private while maintaining governance transparency, using a self-custodial multisignature Treasury Contract. The launch follows an October 1 exploit of NEAR Intents that drained about $3.8 million, which was later returned. NEAR has since enhanced its security with AI-powered threat detection and real-time monitoring. NEAR Business charges no subscription fee, instead collecting fees on swaps. Unlike privacy platforms like Zama and Aztec, it operates across multiple blockchains. Tiwari also noted that AI agents will likely execute more financial transactions, requiring additional safeguards.

Near Protocol's NEAR token dropped about 7% on Tuesday to $3.82, extending its weekly decline to roughly 13%, despite community approval of a proposal to cut the maximum annual issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. The proposal, HSP-029, passed Monday with 99.9% support from participating voting power (about 3.28 million vote-escrowed NEAR tokens). It aims to reduce long-term token dilution, lowering projected gross staking yields from 5.2% to 3.3% by the end of the period, and estimates issuance would fall by 11.8 million NEAR over two years and 66.1 million over six years. The proposal is subject to a 14-day Security Council veto window. If not vetoed, it will be ratified, followed by a 90-day grace period before the reduction begins, pending validator adoption of technical upgrades.

NEAR Protocol's governance body, House of Stake, has approved a proposal to lower the network's maximum annual token issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. The change, passed with overwhelming support, keeps the existing 90/10 token split between stakers and treasury, and gradually reduces issuance at about 3.75 basis points per month. This move aims to slow dilution and lower long-term sell pressure, as the network's bootstrapping phase is largely complete. The proposal would avoid roughly 11.8 million NEAR in issuance over two years and reduce supply by about 4.36% after six years. Daily issuance is expected to drop from about 89,500 NEAR to 57,300 NEAR, with gross staking yield projected to fall from 5.268% to 3.372%. The change still requires review by the House of Stake Security Council, a 90-day grace period, and a validator protocol upgrade to become binding. NEAR previously cut issuance from 5% to 2.5% in October 2025.

NEAR Protocol's governance body, the House of Stake, approved proposal HSP-029 on November 2, 2026, reducing the network's maximum annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6%. The change will phase in over 24 months following a 90-day grace period, after Security Council ratification and validator upgrades. This marks the second cut, following a reduction from 5% to 2.5% in late 2025. The proposal, authored by SVRN CEO Sal Ternullo, passed with approximately 3.29 million veNEAR in favor. The 90/10 split between stakers and treasury remains unchanged, and no new spending or validator subsidies are included. At full implementation, daily issuance is projected to drop from about 89,500 NEAR to 57,300 NEAR, reducing total issuance by an estimated 11.8 million NEAR over two years and 66 million over six. Staking yields are expected to decrease from about 5.27% to 3.37% gross. The lower issuance cap aims to lessen dilution for non-stakers. The treasury's 10% share will also see reduced inflows over time. The current 2.5% cap remains in effect until the security council ratifies the proposal and validators adopt the upgrade.

NEAR Protocol's token is now tradable on Gemini, expanding its U.S. access, but the listing has failed to boost its price, which hovers near $4.42 after a 12% monthly decline. The token faces resistance at $4.60-$4.65, with support at $3.95 and $3.40 if losses continue. Despite the Gemini listing and the recent launch of the Bitwise NEAR ETF, bearish technical indicators persist. NEAR trades below the Keltner Channel midpoint at $4.776, and the Aroon Oscillator at -21.429 signals negative momentum, though not strongly. Derivatives open interest remains high at $1.30 billion, while trading volume has dropped. Analysts remain cautious, with immediate support seen at $4.30-$4.40. A move above $4.65 could improve the outlook, but a breakdown might push prices toward $3.40 or lower, according to market observers.

NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin warned on Oct. 22 of widespread software vulnerabilities, calling it 'Security Armageddon' and urging stronger AI-based defenses. He cited risks in PHP systems, malicious TLS certificates, Node.js and LiteLLM. Recent advisories confirm specific weaknesses, though no coordinated attack has been shown. He advocated formal verification, cryptographic authentication and immediate patching. The warning follows NEAR's October exploit of its Intents platform, which lost $3.8 million in USDT on BNB Smart Chain; services were restored and compensation pledged. NEAR traded near $5.02, down 3.61% on the day, with futures open interest falling 7.45% to $1.50 billion.

NEAR Protocol's staking ratio remains stable at about 46%, with roughly 596 million tokens worth $3 billion staked, according to Bitwise's Q4 2026 Staking Report. This stability persists even after NEAR halved its token issuance in late 2025 from 5% to 2.5% annually. Independent data confirms the ratio, with average yields around 4.87%. The report coincides with a new governance vote on proposal HSP-029, which would cut maximum annual issuance again from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. If passed, projected gross staking yields could drop to around 3.37%. Bitwise, which launched a NEAR ETF in September, reports a net staking rate of 3.31% for the fund.

NEAR AI has surpassed 1 million NEAR tokens staked for its service that uses staking rewards to fund AI inference while users retain their underlying tokens. The milestone was announced in an Oct. 21 post, with NEAR Protocol confirming the figure. Launched on July 30, the mechanism covers 43 models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, plus confidential inference and hosted agents. The service converts staking yield into computing credits, with budgets depending on the amount staked, NEAR's price, and staking APY. Credits accrue continuously, unused balances carry forward, and unstaking halts new credits. Pay-as-you-go pricing, updated Oct. 21, charges per model token, with no minimums or platform fees. Agent hosting uses a separate formula, dividing staked NEAR by 100 for monthly dollar credits and requiring a 50 NEAR minimum to activate an agent.

NEAR Protocol has launched NEAR Business, a confidential multisig treasury platform for crypto companies and institutions to manage payments, swaps, and treasury assets across more than 35 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and NEAR, as well as networks like Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche, XRP Ledger, Sui, and TON. The platform offers a shared dashboard where teams can pay employees and vendors, execute swaps, and manage balances, with transactions requiring organizational approval. Unlike public wallets, it keeps transaction amounts, recipient info, and balances confidential while maintaining verifiable governance records. NEAR Business is powered by NEAR Intents, using self-custodial multisig contracts and a multiparty computation network for signing. It supports bulk payments, hardware wallet signing, multiple treasuries, and exportable transaction records for auditing. The service is free to start with no subscription fees, covering network fees for the first 1,000 actions monthly, while swaps incur a 0.35% fee. Initially, access is by invitation, extending NEAR's Intents infrastructure from individual swaps to broader financial operations for businesses and funds.

NEAR Protocol launched NEAR Business, an invite-only confidential multisig treasury management platform for crypto teams and institutions. The service, live since October 20, bundles payroll, vendor payments, cross-chain swaps, and capital allocation into a single dashboard, leveraging NEAR's private shard infrastructure for confidentiality while remaining auditable. Each organization gets a self-custodial Treasury Contract on NEAR mainnet, based on SputnikDAO multisig principles. The platform supports transactions across more than 35 blockchain networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, with over 200 assets, using NEAR Intents for cross-chain swaps instead of third-party bridges. It is free to start with no subscriptions or per-seat fees, unlimited treasuries and users, and no annual contracts. Swap fees are 0.35%, and setup takes minutes, positioning the product against enterprise offerings costing $18,000+ yearly. Features include bulk payroll via CSV upload, role-based approvals, and customizable exports. NEAR Business targets institutional desks, venture firms, and crypto-native startups. It is part of NEAR's 2026 roadmap emphasizing integrated cross-chain execution and privacy, following the unveiling of near.com as a multi-chain super-app for individuals, with both relying on NEAR Intents.