Bitwise to distribute staking rewards on NEAR ETF listing on NYSE Arca

Bitwise has started trading the Bitwise NEAR ETF on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR. 

This makes it the first US spot exchange-traded product tied to NEAR. It also gives American investors a regulated way to hold the token and collect its staking yield without running a validator themselves.

A staking ETF that keeps the rewards in-house

Bitwise announced the launch on Tuesday, September 29, and stated it intends to stake the fund’s token. 

It stated that it is targeting NEAR’s current reward rate of roughly 5%. The firm pointed out that the rate is based on annualized on-chain data as of September 25, 2026.

The rewards are said to accrue to the trust and show up as an increase in net asset value per share.

Bitwise added that the rewards are not guaranteed and could carry tax consequences for shareholders.

The crypto asset manager already runs a BaFin-approved staking product in Europe, and the launch of NRR extends that franchise into the US.

Where does NRR fit on Bitwise’s shelf?

The NEAR ETF is not the first single-asset crypto fund to be launched by Bitwise. The asset manager already has single-asset funds in Bitcoin (BITB), Ethereum (ETHW), Solana (BSOL), XRP, and Hyperliquid (BHYP) on its roster. 

The asset manager stated that it had $9 billion in client assets as of June 30, and with the latest ETF, the expectation is that the figure will see some significant rise.

NEAR is a proof-of-stake blockchain built for deploying decentralized applications. It is one of the top-20 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, and the token is currently trading around $4.96.

It has a market capitalization of over $6.4 billion per CoinMarketCap.

Bitwise mentioned that the token has a fully unlocked supply and that its network inflation was recently cut to 2.5%.

Is there an AI-agent pitch behind the fund?

NEAR has been positioned as a leading blockchain infrastructure that is powering the AI economy.

Bitwise pointed out that the network was built by AI researchers who are building the transaction layer for AI.

The asset manager highlighted the network’s transaction protocol known as NEAR Intents, stating that it has cleared more than $32 billion in cumulative volume, up from under $1 billion a year earlier.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said, “AI is fundamentally changing how we access information and how economic activity happens.” 

He added that a coming agentic economy, in which software agents transact on people’s behalf, “could unlock an enormous new frontier for the global economy.”

NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin called the network “the vertically integrated stack for the AI blockchain future.” NEAR Protocol confirmed the debut on X, telling followers the fund gives institutions “straightforward access” to the network.

What is Bitwise forecast for 2030?

In a recent report, Bitwise laid out three price paths for NEAR through the end of 2030. It stated that the token will be trading around $1.63 in a bear case, $155.8 in a base case, and $562.8 in a bull case. 

BULLISH: @Bitwise projects near:native could reach $155 by 2030 in its base case, with its most optimistic scenario targeting as high as $563. pic.twitter.com/RSXocAPMmU

— Cryptopolitan (@CPOfficialtx) September 28, 2026

Against the current prices, that means the token is expected to rise by over 31 times in a base case scenario, and should it be a bull case, that will be an increase by over 110 times.

The firm stated that the $155 figure is not a most-likely estimate, and the whole model rests on a heavy assumption.

That assumption is that out of an estimated 16.4 billion AI agents that will be operating globally by 2030, about 2% would run on NEAR, each averaging 1,000 tasks a year at roughly $5 per transaction.

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.