NEAR Jumps 12% as Bitwise Adds Staking to ETF Filing in 2026

Bitwise Asset Management filed its second amended S-1 registration statement for a spot NEAR Protocol ETF on July 2, 2026, adding staking rewards as a secondary investment objective — a move that sent NEAR surging nearly 12% the following day to approximately $2.04. The amendment arrives as regulators have approved four distinct crypto ETF categories since January 2024, and as Grayscale simultaneously filed a competing NEAR ETF application, signaling that institutional appetite for regulated NEAR exposure has reached critical mass. If approved, Bitwise's fund would become the first U.S. product to offer both spot exposure and native staking yield on NEAR, the self-styled "AI-native blockchain" that has emerged as one of the clearest AI-narrative plays in digital assets.

What Bitwise Changed in Its NEAR ETF Filing

The July 2 amendment is Bitwise's most substantive revision to its original NEAR ETF registration statement, which the firm has been shepherding through the SEC review process for nearly a year. The updated S-1/A formally adds staking as a second objective for the trust alongside providing regulated spot exposure to NEAR tokens.

Under the proposed structure, the trust would stake a portion of its NEAR holdings through validators on the protocol's proof-of-stake network, generating yield distributed to fund shareholders — modeled after the structure BlackRock used when it launched its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) in March 2026. ETHB attracted $106.7 million in opening assets by combining spot exposure with staking income and established the regulatory precedent that staking yield can be built into a registered U.S. ETF.

Key structural details from the amended Bitwise filing:

• Exchange: NYSE Arca (proposed listing, subject to SEC approval)
• Crypto custodian: Coinbase Custody
• Cash custodian, administrator, and transfer agent: The Bank of New York Mellon
• Seed capital: Provided by Bitwise Asset Management
• Management fee and ticker: Not yet disclosed — both remain pending SEC review

The filing expanded disclosures around staking-related tax treatment, redemption liquidity, and cryptocurrency market risks — all areas the SEC scrutinized closely during its Ethereum staking ETF reviews earlier in 2026. Specific yield projections were not included, consistent with how BlackRock and other issuers handled their staking ETF filings before approval.

NEAR's on-chain staking currently yields approximately 4.5–5.0% annually at the network level. The protocol allocates 5% of NEAR's total supply each year as staking rewards, distributing 90% of that pool to stakers and retaining 10% for the NEAR treasury. For comparison, BlackRock's ETHB passes roughly 82% of Ethereum staking rewards to shareholders. Bitwise has not yet disclosed what percentage of NEAR staking yields it will pass through to fund holders.

Grayscale Joins the Race

Bitwise is not alone in pursuing a NEAR ETF. Grayscale filed its own amended registration statement for a competing spot NEAR product in the same regulatory window — a dynamic that closely mirrors what happened with Solana and XRP before their respective approvals.

Both the Solana and XRP ETF races involved multiple issuers submitting competing applications within short windows of each other. The SEC responded by approving qualifying products simultaneously rather than granting exclusivity to any single firm. Solana spot ETFs began trading on May 26, 2026. XRP ETFs, approved in March 2026, crossed $1.37 billion in cumulative inflows by mid-May — the fastest any new crypto ETF category had reached $1 billion since Ethereum's 2024 launch.

The simultaneous Grayscale NEAR filing is commercially significant because it signals that at least two institutional-grade issuers independently concluded there is sufficient demand to justify regulatory investment. For a token whose market cap sits well below Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, competing applications from Bitwise and Grayscale represent a meaningful institutional vote of confidence.

NEAR's Market Response: 12% Surge and Breaking Resistance

Markets did not wait for SEC approval to react. NEAR climbed nearly 12% on July 3, 2026, reaching approximately $2.04 — its highest level in several weeks — after news of Bitwise's amended filing broke. The token broke above a descending trendline that had capped every recovery attempt since mid-June and reclaimed the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level.

Key price and derivatives metrics from the post-filing session:

• NEAR price: ~$2.04 high; resistance at $2.14, $2.24, $2.36, and the June peak near $2.56
• Support level: Former breakout zone near $1.90
• Futures open interest: $472 million, up 13% in 24 hours
• 24-hour trading volume: Up 6%
• MACD: Bullish crossover with rising positive histogram; Aroon Up at 100, Aroon Down near 14

The 12% jump is consistent with patterns seen in prior alt-ETF candidates at the news-of-filing stage, though smaller in magnitude than the double-digit surges Solana and XRP staged when their own applications first gained traction. The relatively muted reaction partly reflects how thoroughly the "alt-ETF summer" theme has already been priced into the broader altcoin market since Solana's May 2026 launch.

Why NEAR Calls Itself the AI-Native Blockchain

Most crypto ETF filings center on an asset's store-of-value credentials or its scale as a smart contract platform. Bitwise's NEAR application is notable for the degree to which NEAR's artificial intelligence positioning features in its investment rationale.

NEAR Protocol describes itself as the AI-native blockchain — a Layer 1 designed specifically to support on-chain AI agents, autonomous systems, and machine learning applications. The protocol's "Chain Abstraction" architecture lets AI agents operate across multiple blockchains without requiring users to manage separate wallets, bridge protocols, or gas tokens for each network. NEAR's developer roadmap centers on enabling fully autonomous AI applications to transact on-chain without human sign-off at each step — a capability with obvious appeal to the AI agents and automation workloads that represent the fastest-growing segment of on-chain activity in 2026.

That positioning has driven real market performance. NEAR previously surged more than 115% during a prior AI-narrative rally, and the AI crypto sector's combined market cap reached $21.4 billion in early July 2026. AI protocol revenue grew 67% in the first quarter of 2026 according to Token Terminal — evidence that the AI-blockchain thesis is generating actual economic activity rather than pure speculation.

For institutional investors seeking regulated exposure to the AI-blockchain theme, a NEAR ETF with staking yield represents a distinctly positioned product. No currently approved U.S. crypto ETF offers direct exposure to a protocol built explicitly around AI agent infrastructure — a gap Bitwise is betting institutional capital will pay to close once the regulatory on-ramp is open.

The Alt-ETF Pipeline: Where NEAR Fits

The American crypto ETF landscape has evolved rapidly since January 2024:

• January 2024: Spot Bitcoin ETFs approved; eleven products launch simultaneously, accumulating $10B in net inflows within three weeks
• July 2024: Spot Ethereum ETFs begin trading; staked ETH variants from BlackRock (ETHB) and others follow through 2025–2026
• March 2026: Spot XRP ETFs approved; category crosses $1.37B in cumulative inflows by mid-May
• May 26, 2026: Solana spot ETFs begin trading under the "altcoin ETF summer" banner
• Pending SEC review: NEAR (Bitwise + Grayscale), Litecoin, Cardano, and additional alt ETFs in the pipeline

NEAR enters this queue with structural advantages over some competitors. Its proof-of-stake architecture makes staking straightforward to implement in a trust vehicle, unlike proof-of-work assets such as Litecoin. Its AI-native narrative gives fund marketers a differentiated pitch compared with the near-homogeneous Bitcoin and Ethereum products already on shelves. And NEAR's relatively small market cap means that even a fraction of the $1.37B XRP attracted in its first weeks could generate a proportionally larger price impact.

The staking component is the most commercially significant addition to the Bitwise filing. The SEC's approval of staking yields in Ethereum ETF structures earlier in 2026 established the precedent Bitwise is now applying to NEAR, framing the yield mechanism as an extension of approved practice rather than an untested novelty.

What This Means for Investors

For investors tracking the NEAR ETF story, several practical considerations apply before the fund becomes available through traditional brokerage accounts.

Upside scenario: If the SEC approves Bitwise's NEAR ETF on a timeline consistent with prior alt-ETF reviews — typically six to twelve months from a substantive amendment — a product could be tradeable in late 2026 or early 2027. The demand dynamics that propelled XRP to $1.37B in cumulative inflows would then apply to a token trading near multi-week support, a historically favorable entry point for analogous ETF launches.

Key risks:

• No approval guarantee: NEAR's smaller liquidity profile compared to prior approved assets could invite additional SEC scrutiny or a longer review window
• No fee or ticker disclosed: The absence of fee information prevents direct comparison with competing NEAR products or projection of flow-capture dynamics
• Derivatives exposure: NEAR's $472M in futures open interest implies leveraged positioning that could unwind sharply on any delay or rejection news
• AI narrative risk: NEAR's valuation premium rests partly on AI sentiment, which has proved volatile across prior market cycles

For investors already holding NEAR, the dual filing from Bitwise and Grayscale reduces — but does not eliminate — execution risk around ETF approval. The established regulatory precedent from prior alt-ETF approvals and the SEC's demonstrated willingness to approve competing products simultaneously are genuine positive signals.

The NEAR ETF race is the latest chapter in a question the market is still answering: how much institutional capital flows into the long tail of crypto once the regulatory on-ramp is fully open? XRP's $1.37B in first-month inflows suggests the answer is larger than most expected. NEAR's AI-native positioning, combined with a staking yield that appeals to income-focused institutional allocators, could make it a more compelling ETF product than its current market cap implies — provided the SEC completes its review on the timetable institutional applicants now expect.