At the present moment, Near Protocol [NEAR] is trading at $4.47, showing a 12% increase in its price. The surge in price was primarily fueled by positive market sentiment, with most cryptocurrencies experiencing upward movement following the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates.
Trading volumes for NEAR have surged by over 90%, indicating a significant increase in buying activity that has raised concerns about the sustainability of the current rally.
Despite these concerns, on-chain data paints a positive long-term picture for NEAR.
Surge in Daily Transaction Count
Data from NearBlocks reveals a notable spike in NEAR’s daily transactions, reaching nearly 7.33 million, approaching a two-week high. This signifies a growing network engagement, which in turn is driving demand for NEAR.
Moreover, the number of daily new addresses on the blockchain has witnessed substantial growth, with 900,000 new addresses being added daily since September 5th.
According to DappRadar, the increased transaction count is not solely attributed to trading activities but also to decentralized application (DApp) usage. Monthly dApp transactions have risen by 14% to over $182 million, although dApp volumes have declined by 54%, likely influenced by NEAR’s price fluctuations.
Record High Open Interest
NEAR has caught the attention of derivative traders, with Open Interest (OI) soaring to $184 million, marking the highest point since July 25th. The continuous rise in NEAR’s OI suggests that traders are actively speculating on future price increases through new positions.
Furthermore, NEAR’s Funding Rates are currently positive at 0.0112%, the highest level since June. This indicates a growing demand for long positions among traders. Notably, data from Coinglass reveals that Binance traders have maintained a predominantly bullish stance on NEAR since August.
One potential driver behind this bullish sentiment could be the flourishing market for Big Data and AI coins. Over the past month, the total market capitalization of these coins has surged from $22 billion to $32 billion, with NEAR emerging as the leading AI-focused cryptocurrency, commanding over 15% of this market cap.