NEAR Protocol: first US ETF and a plan for 1.6% issuance

On 29 September 2026 NEAR Protocol got an exchange-traded fund in the United States: the Bitwise NEAR ETF (ticker NRR) on NYSE Arca. A proposal to cut NEAR's annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% followed, then a 3.8 million US dollar exploit at NEAR Intents, and a price that almost reached 6 dollars on 12 October and closed 13.7% lower the same day. This is the NEAR Protocol news from early October, and what you can do with it in Europe. Everything was read on 13 October 2026.

In short

• NEAR Protocol ETF: NRR charges 0.75% a year. It held 81.7 million dollars on 11 October.
• Europe: retail investors here cannot buy the US ETF through a broker. European exchange-traded products on NEAR cost 0.85% to 2.5% a year.
• Issuance and NEAR staking: a proposal would take issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. The gross staking yield would go from 5.27% to 3.37%. No vote has been held.
• NEAR Intents: 3.8 million dollars disappeared on 1 October and was back on 2 October.
• Price: 5.00 dollars (4.47 euros) on 13 October, 15.3% below the high of 12 October.

The first US NEAR ETF

Bitwise calls NRR "the first spot NEAR ETP in the U.S.": the fund holds NEAR itself, in custody at Coinbase Custody, for 0.75% a year. On 11 October that was 14.99 million NEAR, worth 81.7 million dollars.

The fund stakes its NEAR: the target is 100%, and on 10 October it was 94%. Of the staking rewards, 33% goes to the staking agents, the custodian and Bitwise. The product page shows 4.92% gross and 3.30% net. Those rewards are not paid out; they sit in the share price.

Proposal: issuance from 2.5% to 1.6%

NEAR issues at most 2.5% in new tokens a year; 90% goes to stakers and 10% to the protocol treasury. On 30 September Sal Ternullo, chief executive of SVRN, a listed company that itself holds about 55 million NEAR, proposed lowering that cap to 1.6% in even steps over 24 months, starting 90 days after adoption. The formal proposal reached House of Stake, NEAR's voting body, on 7 October.

The downside is in the proposal itself. The gross staking yield falls from 5.268% to 3.372%, calculated with the 42.71% of all NEAR that was staked on 22 September. Someone staking 1,000 NEAR ends up with about 20 NEAR less after two years. Of the 405 validators, 170 now cover their own costs; that becomes 146. The sources differ: the forum post of 30 September spoke of about 5.4% and 3.5%, the proposal's summary of 4.80% and 3.07%. The yield depends on how much NEAR is staked.

Nothing has been adopted. On 13 October House of Stake listed the proposal as submitted; there was no on-chain vote yet. After a vote, validators still have to adopt the change themselves, as they did in October 2025 when issuance went from 5% to 2.5%.

NEAR Intents: 3.8 million dollars gone and back

NEAR Intents lets you swap tokens across blockchains. On 1 October the team stopped the service after "a bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract".

The loss was about 3.8 million dollars. According to co-founder Illia Polosukhin it concerned USDT on BNB Smart Chain and the flaw was patched within an hour, Unchained reports. Deposits and withdrawals on eleven networks were to stay closed for roughly another twelve hours. On 2 October Alex Shevchenko of NEAR Intents gave the attacker 48 hours, according to Unchained. At 15:52 UTC he said the funds had been returned in full and that the investigation was being stopped.

The network and the token themselves were not affected, Polosukhin said. Two days earlier NEAR Intents had blocked a 50 million dollar swap attempt by the Bitget hacker, according to Decrypt. No link between the two has been established.

NEAR Protocol price: almost 6 dollars, then 13.7% lower the same day

In CoinGecko's hourly series NEAR stood at 2.30 dollars on 14 September and at 5.91 dollars (5.27 euros) on 12 October at 05:00 UTC, the highest point in thirty days. On 13 October at 17:37 UTC it was 5.00 dollars (4.47 euros): 15.3% below the high and 113% above the price a month earlier. Our converter does the sums for you.

On Kraken the day's high on 12 October was 5.999 dollars. The close was 5.09 dollars, 13.7% below the close of 11 October; in euros it went from 5.25 to 4.55. Bitcoin fell below 82,000 dollars that day. According to Coinglass figures cited by Bitcoin.com News, 488.6 million dollars in leveraged positions were liquidated in 24 hours, about 19.8 million of it on NEAR. That report points to outflows from bitcoin ETFs and a US ten-year yield approaching 5.24% to 5.3%.

We do not make a NEAR price prediction and we do not repeat other people's price targets. The facts that move the price are above.

What you can do with it in Europe

The US ETF. What we described for the 3x products on bitcoin applies to NRR too. Bitwise publishes a prospectus and a fact sheet, but no key information document (KID) under the European PRIIPs rules. Without that document, European brokers do not offer a US exchange-traded product to retail investors.

European exchange-traded products. According to the issuers' websites:

A product like this is not a fund but a debt security of the issuer, with the tokens as collateral. If that collateral falls short, there is no guarantee scheme, says the 21Shares key information document. 21Shares and Valour put their product in risk class 7 out of 7. The Bitwise product is registered for sale in sixteen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland; Belgium and Portugal are not on the list.

The token itself. Among the MiCA-authorised platforms we follow, we found NEAR on Kraken and OKX (both against the euro), Finst, eToro and Crypto.com, and against USDC on Bybit EU. Authorisations are in our register, costs in our comparison.

Staking. If you stake yourself, you delegate from your own wallet to a validator; withdrawing takes two to four epochs of about twelve hours each. Through a platform, the platform holds the tokens and decides what share of the rewards you get. If issuance falls, the yield falls in both cases. More in our staking explainer.

What is not settled yet

• Whether and when House of Stake votes, and whether validators follow.
• What exactly went wrong at NEAR Intents: we could not find the promised report on 13 October.
• How much flows into the ETF each day. Bitwise does not publish that on the product page.

This article is not investment advice. NEAR closed more than 13% lower in a single day twice this month on Kraken, on 8 and 12 October. You can lose your entire stake.

Disclosure: the links to platforms on our partner pages belong to our partner programmes. If you sign up through such a link, CryptoCode receives a commission; you do not pay more.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a NEAR Protocol ETF?

Yes, since 29 September 2026: the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR) on NYSE Arca, at 0.75% a year. Europe has had exchange-traded products on NEAR for longer; the 21Shares one dates from November 2024.

Can you buy the NEAR ETF in Europe?

Not as a retail investor through a European broker, because the key information document is missing. The European products from Bitwise, 21Shares and Valour do have that document.

What does 1.6% mean if you stake?

Fewer new NEAR: 3.372% gross instead of 5.268% according to the proposal, and about 3.20% instead of 5.00% with a validator charging 5% commission. A platform or exchange-traded product takes its own cut on top.

Was NEAR itself hacked?

No. The flaw was in NEAR Intents, an application on the network. The network and the token were not affected, according to Illia Polosukhin.

Sources

Read on 13 October 2026. The percentages for the price are our own calculation.

• Bitwise, NRR product page: nrretf.com; prospectus dated 24 September: sec.gov.
• Issuance: forum post of 30 September (gov.near.org) and formal proposal of 7 October (gov.near.org).
• NEAR Intents on X, 1 October: x.com; Alex Shevchenko, 2 October: x.com.
• Unchained: unchainedcrypto.com; Decrypt: decrypt.co.
• Price: CoinGecko hourly series (api.coingecko.com) and Kraken daily prices; market on 12 October: news.bitcoin.com.
• European products: bitwiseinvestments.eu, 21shares.com, valour.com.
• Platforms: the NEAR pages and public APIs of the platforms named.