NEAR Price Jumps 6% as Bitwise CEO Matt Hougan Predicts Moonshot Potential

Bitwise CEO Matt Hougan has picked NEAR as a rare smaller-cap crypto asset combining an existing business with major AI upside. Hougan pointed to NEAR Intents’ $30 billion-plus volume and growing revenue while describing its AI-agent ambitions as the longer-term opportunity.

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Bitwise CEO Points to NEAR’s Existing Business

Matt Hougan wrote that advisers often ask which smaller crypto assets could eventually become much larger. He normally approaches such bets cautiously because many depend almost entirely on future expectations.

NEAR stands out because it already has an operating business alongside its broader AI vision, according to Hougan. NEAR Intents has processed more than $30 billion in cumulative volume as adoption has expanded.

Thirty-day Intents volume has passed $4 billion, representing 896% year-over-year growth, according to figures shared by NEAR. Thirty-day revenue also exceeded $2 million and rose 512% from a year earlier.

That growth follows Bitwise’s deeper push into the asset, including the recent launch of its first U.S. spot NEAR ETF. The fund gives investors regulated brokerage access to NEAR while also incorporating staking rewards.

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NEAR Intents Builds the Case for AI-Scale Commerce

Bitwise described NEAR as building a settlement engine designed for fast and inexpensive AI-scale commerce. The network aims to support transactions between AI agents as their role in digital markets expands.

NEAR Intents plays a central role because it allows users or AI agents to specify desired outcomes. A network of market-making bots, called solvers, then handles the underlying cross-chain execution.

Bitwise described this structure as a flywheel where more AI agents could drive additional Intents activity. Greater Intents usage would then create more settlement demand on NEAR Protocol.

The network has also expanded beyond crypto transfers, including tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs through Ondo Finance. The integration uses NEAR Intents to provide cross-chain access to supported tokenized securities.

Bitwise CEO Sees AI as NEAR’s Moonshot Upside

Bitwise CEO Matt Hougan said NEAR’s larger ambition is becoming infrastructure where AI agents can transact with each other and the wider economy. That vision builds on the network’s focus on scalability, interoperability, and private AI infrastructure.

The Bitwise CEO argued that investors are not relying entirely on that AI future because NEAR already generates activity through Intents. He described the existing blockchain business as the foundation, with the AI opportunity providing additional optionality.

“If AI agents become the dominant users of digital infrastructure,” Bitwise said, NEAR could benefit if it becomes their settlement layer.”

After the announcement, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) soared to $5.38, up 6.23% over the past 24 hours, extending a rally that has been up over 130% in the last 30 days.