Key Takeaways
- • NEAR gained 198% in Q3, outpacing Bitcoin's 43% and Ethereum's 71% gains, according to Bitwise's October 7 CIO memo by Matt Hougan.
- • NEAR Intents has surpassed $30 billion in cumulative volume and is projected to generate about $45 million in fees this year, with part of that revenue returned to tokenholders through buybacks.
- • Bitwise frames NEAR's existing Intents business as the foundation for its larger AI-agent ambition, arguing the network does not need the AI thesis to materialize to justify its value.
- • Hougan characterizes agentic finance as still in its infancy, making the AI opportunity a longer-term thesis rather than a near-term driver.
Summary
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, in an October 7 CIO memo, highlighted a 198% gain for the NEAR token in the third quarter of 2026, alongside more than $30 billion in cumulative volume for NEAR Intents and roughly $45 million in fees projected for the year. Over the same quarter, Bitwise reported Bitcoin rose 43% and Ethereum rose 71%, placing NEAR among the more pronounced large-cap crypto moves of the period.
NEAR Intents allows users to move between blockchains without relying on the typical combination of wallets, bridges, and exchanges. Bitwise said cross-chain transactions are executed through a network of "solvers," and that a portion of the product's revenue is returned to tokenholders via buybacks. Hougan argued that this revenue layer distinguishes NEAR from other AI-themed assets, which generally lack comparable measurable usage today.
The memo does not attribute the Q3 rally to AI. Instead, it points to existing network activity alongside a longer-term AI vision. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin, who co-authored the 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need" that introduced the transformer architecture, is central to the company's positioning as "the blockchain for AI." Bitwise argues NEAR has built toward the needs of an AI-agent economy, including high transaction capacity, cross-chain execution, and privacy through its private AI infrastructure, which is designed to keep sensitive data hidden even from NEAR itself.
Hougan nonetheless cautioned that agentic finance remains in its infancy. He described NEAR as an "exciting blockchain business" with AI as additional upside, and argued the network could perform well through its existing businesses even if AI agents do not become a major market. The analysis frames the investment case as having two layers: a measurable current business in Intents, and a developing infrastructure bet on AI agents transacting on users' behalf.
NEAR Intents allows users to move between blockchains without relying on the typical combination of wallets, bridges, and exchanges. Bitwise said cross-chain transactions are executed through a network of "solvers," and that a portion of the product's revenue is returned to tokenholders via buybacks. Hougan argued that this revenue layer distinguishes NEAR from other AI-themed assets, which generally lack comparable measurable usage today.
The memo does not attribute the Q3 rally to AI. Instead, it points to existing network activity alongside a longer-term AI vision. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin, who co-authored the 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need" that introduced the transformer architecture, is central to the company's positioning as "the blockchain for AI." Bitwise argues NEAR has built toward the needs of an AI-agent economy, including high transaction capacity, cross-chain execution, and privacy through its private AI infrastructure, which is designed to keep sensitive data hidden even from NEAR itself.
Hougan nonetheless cautioned that agentic finance remains in its infancy. He described NEAR as an "exciting blockchain business" with AI as additional upside, and argued the network could perform well through its existing businesses even if AI agents do not become a major market. The analysis frames the investment case as having two layers: a measurable current business in Intents, and a developing infrastructure bet on AI agents transacting on users' behalf.
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