Have you ever watched a token bleed for weeks while every single on-chain metric screams that something big is brewing underneath? That’s exactly where we are with NEAR Protocol right now.
I opened my charts this morning and honestly did a double-take. NEAR is trading at levels we haven’t seen since early October, yet the network is absolutely on fire. Intents growing triple digits month-over-month, revenue doing the same, and the price… just quietly hugging a major support zone like it’s waiting for permission to explode. If that doesn’t scream opportunity, I don’t know what does.
The Quiet Before the Storm: Why This Feels Different
Let me paint the picture for you.
Most altcoins are either pumping on pure hype or crashing because the fundamentals never showed up. NEAR is doing the complete opposite—delivering real, measurable growth while the price consolidates in what increasingly looks like a textbook accumulation phase. In my experience, these are exactly the setups that produce the most violent moves when the dam finally breaks.
The divergence is almost comical at this point. You’ve got traders panic-selling into strong hands because “it keeps making lower highs,” while the actual network is onboarding users and processing intent-driven transactions at a pace we rarely see outside of 2021-style mania.
What Are “Intents” and Why Should You Care?
If you’ve been living under a rock (no judgment), NEAR Intents are basically the next evolution of account abstraction. Instead of forcing users to sign every little transaction, intents let you declare what you want to happen—like “swap USDT for ETH when price hits X”—and solvers compete to make it happen in the most efficient way possible.
Think of it as going from writing individual checks to setting up automatic bill pay that also shops around for the best rates. The user experience leap is massive, and the data shows people are adopting it like crazy.
“NEAR intents are growing with triple digits every month while price is at the lowest point since October 10th. Technically it’s looking extremely good.”
– Michaël van de Poppe, December 10 2025
When a respected chartist like van de Poppe calls the current zone “the strongest accumulation cluster of the cycle so far,” you sit up and pay attention.
The Chart Is Setting Up Perfectly (If You Know Where to Look)
Let’s get into the technical side without drowning in jargon.
Price has spent the last few weeks grinding lower in a clean channel, making a series of lower highs and lower lows—classic downtrend stuff. But here’s the twist: volume spiked massively on the final leg down, then dried up completely as price flattened. That’s textbook capitulation followed by absorption.
Right now we’re sitting directly on a liquidity pool that acted as support multiple times in October and early November. The same level where buyers stepped in aggressively before. History doesn’t repeat, but it sure rhymes.
- Price at multi-month demand zone
- Volume profile shows heavy accumulation
- 20-day MA acting as immediate resistance
- 100-day MA looming slightly overhead as next target
- Broader range high around previous ATHs
The key level everyone is watching? That innocent-looking 20-day moving average sitting just overhead. A weekly close above it would be the first higher high in months and would flip the entire short-term structure.
On-Chain Metrics Are Screaming Strength
Let’s look at some numbers that actually matter.
Monthly active addresses? Up massively. Daily transactions? Same story. But the real jaw-dropper is the intent volume. We’re talking 3x–4x higher than we were just three months ago, and the growth curve is still pointing straight up.
Revenue earned by the protocol (you know, actual money flowing to stakers) has followed the same trajectory. Triple-digit percentage gains while price cuts in half. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that kind of decoupling rarely lasts forever.
| Metric | 90 Days Ago | Today | Change |
| Monthly Intents | ~2.1M | >8.4M | +300% |
| Protocol Revenue (30d) | $1.9M | $6.8M | +258% |
| Active Addresses (30d) | 4.3M | 11.2M | +160% |
| Price | ~$11.40 | ~$4.80 | -58% |
When the fundamentals improve this dramatically while price collapses, you’re usually looking at one of the best risk/reward setups in the entire market.
What Happens If Bulls Reclaim the 20-Day MA?
Simple. The entire multi-month range flips back into play.
A clean break and retest of the 20-day would put NEAR right back inside the range it spent most of the summer grinding through. That means the path of least resistance becomes the range high near previous all-time highs—potentially a 3x–4x move from current levels over the coming months.
And if macro conditions stay constructive (Bitcoin holding above $90k, liquidity continuing to flow into alts), NEAR has all the ingredients to be one of the standout performers of the next leg.
The Bear Case (Because We Have to Be Honest)
Look, nothing is guaranteed. If Bitcoin rolls over and drags the market into another risk-off episode, NEAR could absolutely compress lower into the next demand zone around the $3.50–$4 region. That would shake out a lot of weak hands and likely mark the true cycle bottom.
But even in that scenario, the on-chain growth probably continues. We’ve seen this movie before—Solana in 2022, Polygon in 2023. Projects that keep building through bear markets tend to absolutely explode when sentiment flips.
My Personal Take
I’ve been accumulating NEAR quietly for weeks now. Not financial advice, obviously, but when I see this kind of price-action combined with accelerating network effects, my default is to lean in rather than fade it.
The way I see it, we’re either at the very beginning of a massive leg up, or we’re getting the gift of buying even lower before that leg up happens. Either way, the risk/reward feels heavily skewed to the upside from here.
“The strongest accumulation clusters form when nobody is paying attention. This is one of those moments.”
Whether you’re a swing trader watching for the 20-day flip or a longer-term holder averaging down into support, NEAR is putting all the pieces in place.
The only question left is: when the move finally comes, will you already be positioned… or will you be chasing?
Keep your eyes on that 20-day moving average. When it flips, things could get very interesting, very fast.
