NEAR holds $244 million in total value locked, dwarfing the $12 million locked across ICP's ecosystem, according to an analysis published by Our Crypto Talk on X. The report paired the on-chain comparison with pointed criticism from ICP founder Dom, who challenged the design of NEAR's Confidential Intents product and raised concerns about vetKeys, though the allegations remain disputed. NEAR's price action shows weakening momentum as well, with the token retreating toward support after failing to sustain its October rallies. Total value locked—the assets deposited across a chain's applications—is a widely used yardstick for comparing ecosystem activity, which is why head-to-head figures like these often anchor cross-chain debates.

Dom Questions NEAR's Confidentiality Model

According to Our Crypto Talk, Dom shared an engineer's review describing Confidential Intents as a permissioned system with trusted operators, no public code, and no public operator list. He later called the project “snake oil” and raised the possibility of legal action over vetKeys, though these remain allegations.

At the heart of the dispute is NEAR's trust model, which includes a private shard, a limited group of permissioned validators, and a bridge secured by a trusted execution environment. In Our Crypto Talk's assessment, these components do not amount to threshold cryptography. The dispute taps into a broader industry question for privacy products: how much trust each design requires, whether from trusted hardware, permissioned operators, or cryptographic assumptions spread across many parties.

The commentary nonetheless treated the disclosure angle as a weaker line of criticism. NEAR publicly outlined its permissioned shard and TEE bridge at its launch in February, and the analysis also noted that ICP's own documentation states that node operators can read standard subnet state.

NEAR Leads ICP in Locked Value and Performance

Confidential Intents currently holds $171 million, according to Our Crypto Talk, representing a 6.4-fold increase since June. The source noted that incentive programs contributed to part of that growth. By contrast, ICP's entire ecosystem holds approximately $12 million in locked value. Incentive-driven deposits are a common caveat in TVL comparisons, as they do not always reflect organic demand.

The comparison also showed NEAR down 76% from its all-time high, a 99.7% decline for ICP. Measured since February, NEAR has gained 4.3 times in value while ICP has remained roughly flat. Their market-cap-to-TVL ratios stand at approximately 25 times for NEAR and 100 times for ICP. Market-cap-to-TVL is often used as a rough lens for comparing a network's valuation with the actually locked in its applications.

NEAR Chart Shows Selling Pressure Near Support

On the four-hour chart, as shared via TradingView, NEAR has retreated toward the 29%–30% cumulative-gain zone after failing to sustain rallies above 50%. Its latest candle closed at $4.570, down 0.04%, with trading volume at 209,500 NEAR. Repeated recoveries have failed to establish higher highs following an October 11–12 surge toward 68%–70%.

Support sits in the 29%–30% zone, with the 20%–25% region below it. According to the analysis, a recovery toward 35%–40% could indicate improving buying interest, while the 45%–50% zone remains resistance. ICP's comparison line, meanwhile, has fallen 6.46% below its starting baseline.