Why Is Near Protocol (NEAR) Rising as Price Follows Top Analyst Exact Prediction?

Near Protocol price has continued climbing this week after buyers defended a major support zone that many traders had been watching closely for months. The NEAR price is now up nearly 20% since Sunday and around 10% since Wednesday morning. That steady move higher has started drawing attention across the broader AI crypto sector.

The latest rally did not appear out of nowhere. Several developments inside the Near Protocol ecosystem have slowly changed how investors view the project. Recent market activity now shows that confidence returning to NEAR may be tied to both technical strength and growing interest in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

One major reason behind the NEAR price increase comes from the network’s growing connection to the AI economy. Near Protocol has spent the past year positioning itself as infrastructure for what it calls the “Agentic Web.” That vision focuses on autonomous AI agents that can manage payments, identities, coordination, and cross-chain interactions without constant human input.

That narrative has become more important as the AI sector continues expanding across global markets. NEAR’s founders also come from strong AI backgrounds, which often causes the token to move alongside broader AI-related developments. Strong earnings from companies like NVIDIA have helped strengthen interest in AI-connected crypto projects during recent months.

Another factor deserves attention. Near Protocol recently launched automatic personally identifiable information anonymization for AI prompts. Enterprise developers can now run AI interactions without exposing sensitive user data. That upgrade gives Near Protocol a stronger enterprise-focused use case at a time when AI privacy concerns continue growing.

Near Protocol Tokenomics Changes Are Reducing Selling Pressure

Several tokenomics changes are also helping support the NEAR price rally.

A governance upgrade reduced the maximum annual inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%. That move directly lowers the amount of new NEAR tokens entering circulation each year. Lower inflation often helps support prices during periods of rising demand.

Recent changes to NEAR Intents may also be creating steady buy pressure. Since February 2026, all fees generated through the cross chain settlement layer have been converted programmatically into NEAR tokens. That means ecosystem activity now contributes directly to open market buying.

The network’s on chain growth has also remained strong. Total value locked across the ecosystem has reportedly increased more than 120% year over year. Developer activity climbed over 40% during the same period. Those numbers point toward growing usage across DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and AI focused applications.

Dynamic Resharding Upgrade Strengthens Near Protocol Scalability Story

Technical upgrades inside the network are also helping strengthen confidence around Near Protocol’s long term positioning.

Dynamic Resharding through Upgrade 2.13 introduces automated sharding across the Nightshade architecture. Internal benchmarks reportedly reached up to 1 million transactions per second across 70 active shards. That scalability target places Near Protocol among the more ambitious infrastructure projects in the crypto market.

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Security improvements are arriving too. Near Protocol recently confirmed upcoming integration of FIPS 204 post quantum secure signing. Quantum computing risks remain a future concern for blockchain networks. Early preparation may help enterprise adoption discussions over time.

Michaël Van De Poppe Says Near Protocol Trend Still Looks Strong

Michaël van de Poppe recently explained why he believes selling NEAR right now may not make sense.

Van de Poppe said the NEAR price structure still looks extremely strong after holding a key support level. He explained that the first major resistance zones now sit near $2 and the $2.25 to $2.50 range. He also noted that NEAR has continued outperforming Bitcoin during the recent recovery phase.

There's no reason to sell NEAR.

It's doing exactly what I thought it would, and I'm very pleased to see the strength in my largest assets in my portfolio.

The technical structure of the charts is phenomenal, and I don't think there's a reason to sell the position shortly.… pic.twitter.com/AtgfPcJhda

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) May 21, 2026

That relative strength matters because altcoins that outperform Bitcoin during uncertain conditions often attract additional market attention afterward.

A look at the NEAR chart also shows the token maintaining higher lows after recovering from earlier weakness this year. Open interest across derivatives markets has increased too. That usually points toward growing speculative activity around a continuing trend.

Near Protocol now sits at the center of two major market themes at once. Artificial intelligence infrastructure and scalable blockchain networks remain areas receiving heavy investor focus in 2026.

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