Crypto asset manager Bitwise has launched the first US spot exchange-traded product tracking NEAR, which gives investors exposure to the token through fund trading on the NYSE Arca.
The Bitwise NEAR ETF, trading under the ticker NRR, carries a 0.75% management fee and will hold NEAR directly with the intention of holding a significant portion of the Bitwise Fund’s tokens.
The launch was fueled by activity on the network’s cross-chain transaction protocol, NEAR Intents, which grew to more than $32 billion compared to less than $1 billion a year ago, according to BitWise.
BitWise Chief Investment Officer Matt Haugan told Cointelegraph that the firm sees AI agents as a growing use case for NEAR and has already seen evidence of agents using the network. He expects that activity to increase over time, although much of the activity at NEAR today remains human-driven.
Hougan added that Bitwise has been working on the US NEAR ETF since launching its European NEAR exchange-traded product in June 2025. NRR joins the US lineup of single-asset crypto products tracking Bitcoin (BITB), Ether (ETHW), Solana (BSOL), XRP (XRP) and Hyperliquid (BITB), Ether (ETHW), XRP (XRP) and Hyperliquid.
According to CoinGecko data, the NEAR token has risen sharply over the past month, gaining nearly 167% to trade around $4.94 on Tuesday. The token is up about 81% over the last year.
AI Agents Put Crypto Payment Rail In Focus
NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain for decentralized applications transferred Its strategy towards AI in 2024 and since then has increasingly focused on cross-chain infrastructure and autonomous AI agents.
The shift comes as major financial institutions examine how autonomous software can drive demand for blockchain-based payment infrastructure. Last week, BlackRock said in a research paper that AI agents could increase demand for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets as machine-to-machine transactions become more common.
BlackRock described AI as a potential “structural catalyst” for digital asset adoption, arguing that programmable assets could be suited to high-frequency, low-cost transactions that operate around the clock.
NEAR is looking to capture some of that activity through Intents, which allow users and AI agents to specify a desired transaction while third-party solvers compete to execute it on supported blockchains.
“For example, Intent’s design aligns with the goal-oriented orientation of LLMs and protects them from the complexity of bridging and other challenges,” Haugan told Cointelegraph.
Haugan also points to cross-chain usability as a key factor behind Intent’s growth. “Bridging and cross-chain abstraction have been a challenge for crypto for almost a decade, and a lot of people have lost both time and money navigating that space,” he said.
The protocol’s role in moving assets across the blockchain came into focus this week after NEAR Intents said it blocked more than $50 million in transfers linked to the $387.5 million BitGate hack. Its SHIELD system froze about $503,000 during execution, while about $166,000 of suspected stolen funds went through the protocol.
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