NEAR, the native token of layer-one blockchain NEAR Protocol, has climbed into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization after surging roughly 138% in value over the past 30 days, according to CoinGecko, which highlighted the milestone in a post on X.

The token crossed into the top tier Thursday, with NEAR Intents, the protocol's cross-chain trading service, surpassing $31 billion in cumulative transaction volume, according to the NEAR Intents Explorer. In an intents-based model, users specify the outcome they want — such as receiving a particular asset on a particular chain — while the service handles the routing and execution behind the scenes, a design that has become a common building block for cross-chain trading services.

At the time of writing, NEAR was trading around $5.51, an increase of approximately 7% over the past 24 hours. The token's market capitalization stood at about $7.2 billion, with 24-hour trading volume of roughly $1.2 billion. That valuation places NEAR just ahead of Stellar (XLM), which has a market capitalization of nearly $7 billion. Market-cap rankings are the industry's most widely referenced yardstick for comparing asset sizes, and tier crossings like this one are routinely used by trackers and market observers as reference points.

NEAR's advance in the rankings also follows the Sept. 29 launch of the first US spot exchange-traded product tracking the token. The Bitwise fund trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR, offering investors exposure to NEAR without directly holding the cryptocurrency. US-listed spot crypto ETPs have broadened beyond bitcoin and ether in recent years as issuers package token exposure into vehicles that trade through standard brokerage accounts.

The milestone came despite a security incident at NEAR Intents last week, when the platform suffered a $3.8 million exploit involving its deposit and withdrawal infrastructure. On Oct. 2, General Manager Alex Shevchenko said that all of the stolen funds had been returned, one day after the breach was disclosed. Deposit and withdrawal systems that move assets between chains are a recurring target for exploits, and the episode underscores the operational risks attached to the same infrastructure behind the platform's volume growth.

Both figures behind the milestone — NEAR Intents' cumulative volume and NEAR's market-cap standing — are tracked publicly, giving readers a live reference point for how the protocol's usage and ranking develop.

Related: NEAR jumps nearly 80% in a week as Intents volume nears $30B