Crypto asset manager Bitwise has listed the first US spot exchange-traded product tracking NEAR, offering investors direct exposure to the token through a fund trading on NYSE Arca.

The Bitwise NEAR ETF trades under the ticker NRR and carries a 0.75% management fee. It holds NEAR directly — the defining feature of a spot product, distinguishing it from funds that gain exposure through derivatives contracts — and Bitwise plans to stake a significant share of the fund's tokens, a practice that commits tokens to help secure and operate a proof-of-stake network.

The debut arrives amid a surge in activity on NEAR Intents, the network's cross-chain transaction protocol, where volume has grown to more than $32 billion from under $1 billion a year earlier, according to Bitwise.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told Cointelegraph that the firm considers AI agents — software that can transact with limited human input — an emerging use case for NEAR and has already seen evidence of agents using the network. He expects that activity to grow over time, though most activity on NEAR today remains human-driven.

Hougan said Bitwise began building the US NEAR ETF after rolling out its European NEAR exchange-traded product in June 2025. NRR now sits alongside the firm's US lineup of single-asset crypto products tracking Bitcoin (BITB), Ether (ETHW), Solana (BSOL), XRP (XRP) and Hyperliquid (BHYP).

The launch comes after a sharp rally in the NEAR token, which gained about 167% over the past month to trade around $4.94 on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko data. The token is up about 81% over the past year.

AI agents put crypto payment rails in focus

NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain for decentralized applications that shifted its strategy toward AI in 2024 and has since focused increasingly on cross-chain infrastructure and autonomous AI agents.

The repositioning comes as major financial institutions examine how autonomous software could drive demand for blockchain-based payment infrastructure. Last week, BlackRock said in a research paper that AI agents could increase demand for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets as machine-to-machine transactions become more common.

BlackRock described AI as a potential “structural catalyst” for digital asset adoption, arguing that programmable assets could be suited to high-frequency, low-value transactions that operate around the clock.

NEAR is seeking to capture some of that activity through Intents, which allows users and AI agents to specify a desired transaction while third-party solvers compete to execute it across supported blockchains.

“The design of Intents, for instance, aligns with the goal-based orientation of LLMs, and shields them from the complexity of bridging and other challenges,” Hougan told Cointelegraph.

Hougan also pointed to cross-chain usability as a key factor behind Intents' growth “Bridging and cross-chain abstraction has been a challenge for crypto for nearly a decade, and a lot of people have lost both time and money trying to navigate that space,” he said.

The protocol's role in moving assets across blockchains drew renewed attention this week after NEAR Intents said it blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the $387.5 million Bitget hack. Its SHIELD system froze about $503,000 during execution, while roughly $166,000 in suspected stolen funds passed through the protocol.

As NRR begins trading, the same threads offer natural signposts to monitor: how much of Intents' volume growth proves agent-driven rather than human-driven, how Bitwise rolls out the fund's staking plans, and whether the protocol's risk controls continue intercepting flagged transfers as volumes build.

Source: Cointelegraph