Bubble
NEAR Protocol NEAR
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) was trading at $1.91, ranked #32 by market cap at $2.48B, with 24h volume of $110.00M.
Data snapshot: 2026-07-22 18:00 UTC.
NEAR Protocol is a sharded, developer-friendly Layer-1 blockchain designed for high throughput and low transaction fees using a technique called Nightshade sharding. Beyond its original smart-contract platform roots, NEAR has increasingly positioned itself around AI agents and user-owned data. NEAR was built around usability: human-readable account names instead of hexadecimal addresses, and a design that lets applications pay fees on behalf of users so that onboarding does not require holding the token first. It scales by splitting the chain into shards that process transactions in parallel. In recent years the project has positioned itself heavily around artificial-intelligence tooling and agent infrastructure, which means NEAR sometimes trades alongside the AI group on this map rather than with the Layer 1 group it belongs to by architecture — a useful reminder that sector labels describe what something is, not always what the market treats it as.
What is sharding on NEAR?
The network splits into multiple shards that process transactions in parallel, so capacity increases as more shards are added rather than every node processing every transaction.
Why do NEAR addresses look like names?
NEAR uses readable account identifiers rather than raw public-key strings, which reduces the chance of sending funds to the wrong place and makes accounts easier to share.
Is NEAR an AI project or a Layer 1?
It is a Layer 1 blockchain that has focused a significant part of its recent work on AI-related infrastructure. On this map it is grouped by architecture, but its price has at times moved with AI-sector sentiment.
What is the NEAR token used for?
It pays transaction and storage fees, is staked by validators, and is used in governance.
Market cap decides how big a bubble is drawn, so rank is what places NEAR on the map relative to the rest of its sector.
| Rank | Coin | Market cap |
|---|---|---|
| #25 | Hedera (HBAR) | $3.06B |
| #26 | Avalanche (AVAX) | $2.80B |
| #32 | NEAR Protocol (NEAR) | $2.48B |
| #57 | Internet Computer (ICP) | $1.14B |
| #65 | Ethereum Classic (ETC) | $1.07B |