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Bitwise Launches First U.S. Spot NEAR ETF With Staking
NRR brings direct NEAR exposure as Bitwise builds investment case around AI agents
TL;DR
- Bitwise launched NRR on NYSE Arca, giving U.S. investors direct spot exposure to NEAR with staking rewards added to the fund’s net asset value.
- Bitwise is positioning NEAR as infrastructure for an emerging economy of autonomous AI agents.
- Research from Bitwise modeled sharply different long-term outcomes depending on whether decentralized networks or centralized AI platforms dominate.
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Bitwise launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF, ticker NRR, on September 29, 2026, marking the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product providing direct exposure to NEAR. The fund began trading on NYSE Arca and carries a 0.75% annual management fee. Bitwise plans to stake the fund’s underlying NEAR holdings internally, with staking rewards accruing to shareholders through the ETF’s net asset value.
The staking component adds a second source of potential return beyond changes in NEAR price. The underlying tokens were described as generating around 5% in annual staking yield. NRR joins Bitwise’s existing lineup of single-asset crypto products, including the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, or BITB; Bitwise Ethereum ETF, or ETHW; Bitwise Solana ETF, or BSOL; Bitwise XRP ETF, or XRP; and Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF, or BHYP.
Bitwise is tying the launch closely to its view that NEAR could become infrastructure for a growing AI-driven economy. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said, “AI is fundamentally changing how we access information and how economic activity happens.”
“We're moving toward a world in which AI agents increasingly act on our behalf, coordinate with one another, and participate in the economy,” Horsley said. “We believe this shift—to an agentic economy where more and more happens through AI agents—could unlock an enormous new frontier for the global economy. NEAR is building a platform for that future.”
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized proof-of-stake blockchain built to simplify the creation and deployment of decentralized applications. The network was described as having 47 million active addresses, ranking second globally by that measure, while transaction activity through NEAR Intents was also described as growing rapidly.
Bitwise Models Wide Range for NEAR Through 2030
Bitwise paired the ETF launch with a 40-page research study from Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan and Head of European Research André Dragosch. Their framework treated NEAR as a possible coordination and transaction layer for autonomous AI agents and modeled a wide range of outcomes depending on how that market develops.
Under the most optimistic scenario, labeled the Max Case, NEAR would capture 3% of the global AI-agent market, equal to about 950 million agents. The framework used what Bitwise described as a conservative software-as-a-service valuation method with a 50x price-to-sales multiple.
The bullish framework compares NEAR’s potential role to Visa’s position in payments, with the blockchain acting as infrastructure that helps autonomous agents coordinate and conduct economic activity. The valuation is a modeled scenario rather than a guaranteed price forecast and depends heavily on AI adoption, decentralized market share, network monetization and the valuation multiple applied to that activity.
NEAR was trading around $4.93 with a market capitalization of approximately $6.5 billion at one market snapshot, placing it among the top 20 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. A separate snapshot placed NEAR price near $4.99. Relative to a price near that level, the Max Case would represent an increase of more than 100 times.
Price action during September was characterized by a parabolic move, with NEAR breaking above key moving averages and showing strong momentum. Claims that large investors had begun pricing in NEAR’s AI potential were presented as an interpretation of that market behavior rather than transaction-level evidence identifying the buyers.
Existing Bitwise Funds Provide Early Comparison
NRR enters Bitwise’s lineup after other single-asset products had already accumulated substantial investor flows. The available figures provide a comparison for how much capital different products had attracted.
Expectations cited around the launch suggested NRR could eventually attract capital at a pace comparable with the XRP product, although no specific dollar target or timetable accompanied that expectation.
NRR’s investment proposition combines direct exposure to NEAR with staking rewards from the network’s proof-of-stake design. Bitwise is separately using the launch to advance a broader investment thesis that decentralized blockchain infrastructure could serve autonomous AI agents as they coordinate and participate in economic activity.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
