NEAR Protocol recently made headlines by becoming one of the first blockchains to activate a quantum-safe signature scheme approved by NIST. This upgrade, announced on July 20th via a post on X, marks a significant technical milestone for the Layer 1 AI-native settlement platform. Alongside this, NEAR introduced dynamic resharding to help the network automatically adjust its capacity and prepare for the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem.
Despite these advancements, NEAR’s price action has remained under pressure. Over the last day, the token dropped nearly 3%, with open interest declining by over 4%. Although trading volume nudged up slightly by 5.5%, the short-term trend has been bearish. Since hitting a local peak of $2.06 on July 21st, NEAR has lost about 13.5% of its value.
Technical analyst Ali Martinez pointed out a recent buy signal from the TD Sequential indicator on NEAR’s 4-hour chart. This comes right after a sell signal on July 21st proved accurate, which adds weight to the possibility of a rebound. However, caution remains necessary given the ongoing downward momentum and significant selling pressure highlighted by indicators like CMF and MACD.
Fibonacci retracement levels show NEAR facing resistance between $2.80 and $3.00, aligning with a broader bearish trend. Bulls have managed to hold the important $1.80 support zone for almost two months, but dropping below that would likely signal the continuation of the downtrend. This could open opportunities for swing traders to consider short positions. On the other hand, a rally past $2.10 would provide some relief and renewed confidence for buyers.
NEAR’s ambitious push to build an integrated stack for the agent economy involves bringing identity, liquidity, confidential execution, and governance into one ecosystem. This innovative approach to blockchain functionality is happening amid a tough bear market, making price action unpredictable.
This information is for discussion purposes and does not constitute financial advice.
