NEAR Protocol Price Forecast: NEAR extends rally, defying broader collapse

• Near Protocol is up 4% on Tuesday, extending the 13% gains from the previous day.
• Double-digit surge in NEAR Open Interest reflects growing leverage-driven retail interest.
• The technical outlook for NEAR is bullish, as momentum regains strength after last week’s cooldown. 

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) price is up 4% at press time on Tuesday, extending the roughly 80% gains from May. Retail interest in NEAR is building momentum, with futures Open Interest rising over 15% in 24 hours. while the broader market remains under pressure from Bitcoin’s (BTC) pullback to $70,000. Technically, the trend reversal in NEAR suggests an extended recovery above $3.00. 

Retail interest remains unshaken amid the broader market risk-off sentiment

Leverage market demand for NEAR Protocol has held steady so far this week, against the backdrop of over $700 million in liquidations across the crypto market over the last 24 hours. CoinGlass data show that NEAR Open Interest (OI) is up roughly 16% over the same period to $658.47 million, signaling an aggressive, risk-on positional buildup among traders. This conviction is reflected in firm funding rates of 0.0088%, suggesting that buyers are willing to hold long positions at a premium as they anticipate further upside in NEAR.

Demand surges on NEAR Intents

NEAR Intents is a streamlined multichain interoperability system built on the NEAR protocol that enables users to compare prices across chains and developers to integrate multiple chains. According to Grayscale, this chain abstraction model works as an AI agent for blockchain transactions and has processed more than 25 million swaps worth nearly $20 billion since its launch in Q1 2025.

Dune data shows that the daily volume on NEAR Intent reached a 30-day high of $133.6 million on May 31, led by Tether’s USDT stablecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum (ETH).

On the other hand, the protocol upgrade 2.13, scheduled for June 2026, will introduce dynamic resharding and a post-quantum-safe signing scheme, which could further fuel retail interest.

Technical outlook: Will NEAR price cross above $3?

NEAR extends a three-day recovery on Tuesday, reflecting a V-shaped recovery after a pullback last week. The token maintains a clear bullish bias as price holds well above the 50-, 100-, and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), which cluster between roughly $1.65 and $1.84, reinforcing the broader uptrend.

Daily momentum remains firmly bullish, but stretched signals are emerging. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 72 has entered overbought territory, suggesting decisive bullish momentum. However, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) bounces off its signal line, avoiding a crossover to extend its rise in the positive territory, reaffirming persistent upside pressure even as the risk of a corrective pause increases.

The intraday recovery tests the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $2.68, measured over the downswing from $3.18 to $0.84. A decisive close above this level could extend the NEAR rally toward the $3.00 psychological threshold and the November 8 high at $3.18.

On the downside, immediate support is aligned with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $2.28, followed by a deeper pullback area near the 50% retracement at $2.01.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)