In its recent analysis, market intelligence firm Messari has provided a comprehensive overview of the NEAR Protocol’s performance in Q4 2024. Despite facing headwinds in the broader crypto market, NEAR has demonstrated notable resilience through increased activity and strategic developments. Drop In Market Cap Ranking But Resilience Through Increased Activity During Q4, NEAR Protocol initially surged, reaching a token price high of approximately $8.19 in December before retracing to around $4.91 by the quarter’s end. This decline reflected a significant drop in market cap, which fell to approximately $5.73 billion—marking a 2.09% decrease quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). Consequently, NEAR dropped ten spots in market cap rankings, now sitting at 21st overall, indicating a performance lag compared to other leading assets. Despite the challenges in market pricing, NEAR’s revenue, derived from network transaction fees, saw a substantial increase. The revenue grew to about $2.11 million, representing a 26.81% QoQ rise. This growth can be attributed to heightened transaction volumes and decentralized exchange (DEX) activity. The average transaction fee during the quarter was roughly $0.0031, a 15.91% increase from the previous quarter, further highlighting the network’s operational efficiency. Related Reading: XRP Bulls Need This Break For A Shot At $6 The NEAR token plays a multifaceted role within the ecosystem, being essential for staking, transaction fees, and storage fees. The protocol maintains a flexible supply model, characterized by an annual inflation rate of 5%. Of the inflationary rewards, 90% are allocated to validators, while the remaining 10% supports the protocol’s treasury. As of the end of Q4, approximately 95.12% of NEAR’s total supply was in circulation, with about 49.08% actively staked. The annualized nominal yield from staking was reported at around 8.95%, with a real yield of 4.55%, providing attractive incentives for holders to stake their tokens. NEAR enjoyed a surge in address activity and transaction volume during Q4. The average daily active returning addresses rose by 15.82% QoQ, reaching 3.55 million, while the average daily new addresses surged by 29.05% to 361,046. However, the protocol faced a decline in developer activity, with weekly active core developers decreasing by 13.95% to 159 and ecosystem developers falling by 30.34% to 129. NEAR Balances Market Setbacks With Promising Innovations NEAR’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) concluded Q4 at approximately $240.16 million, reflecting a 4.48% decline from the previous quarter. The Liquid Staking TVL also experienced a decrease of around 10.32% QoQ, settling at about $250.81 million. Notably, the LiNEAR Protocol’s TVL was approximately $132.41 million, down 8.77%, while Meta Pool’s TVL declined by 11.78% to around $111.70 million. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Grip Tightens — CZ Says There’s ‘No Escape’ From Crypto On a positive note, NEAR’s average daily DEX volume reached approximately $8.45 million, marking a 25.40% increase from the previous quarter. Ref Finance emerged as the leading DEX on the platform, accounting for an average daily volume of $8.35 million. Q4 also saw an uptick in NEAR’s stablecoin market cap, which grew to about $683.69 million—an increase of 1.88% QoQ and a staggering 880.71% year-over-year (YoY). As of now, the NEAR’s price stands at $3.52, recording a substantial 10% surge in the past two weeks. Yet, still 82% below its all-time record high. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
A recent report from research firm Messari provided an overview of the NEAR (NEAR) protocol’s performance during the turbulent third quarter (Q3) of 2024, when the broader cryptocurrency market experienced significant volatility. NEAR Protocol Q3 Performance Throughout Q2 2024, the crypto market saw a downturn that continued into Q3 for NEAR. The protocol’s circulating market cap fell to approximately $5.16 billion, reflecting a significant quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) decrease of about 27.52%. NEAR’s token price also retraced slightly, closing the quarter at around $5.29, a marginal decline of 0.21% QoQ. Despite these challenges, NEAR managed to maintain its position as the 17th largest crypto by market cap, indicating relative stability among leading digital assets. However, over the past three weeks, it has gained 54% in terms of market capitalization, rising to $7.99 billion amid the broader market rally led by Bitcoin (BTC) and the catalyst that was Donald Trump’s election. Related Reading: Ethereum Price On The Verge Of Repeating 2017-2021 Cycle Breakout, Target Above $20,000 One of the notable aspects of NEAR’s Q3 performance was its revenue, which measures network transaction fees while excluding storage staking. Revenue dropped to approximately $1.64 million, marking a 30.13% decline QoQ. This dip is particularly significant as it represents the first quarter in the past year where revenue ended lower than it began. The report attributes this to a decline in transaction volume, which resulted in reduced transaction fees—down by approximately 10.48% QoQ and 34.23% year-over-year. As of the end of Q3 2024, about 93.46% of NEAR’s total token supply was in circulation, with 52.36% of that supply staked. The annualized nominal yield from staking stood at approximately 8.60%, while the annualized real yield was 4.09%. Despite the challenges in transaction volume, NEAR experienced an uptick in address activity. The average daily active returning addresses increased by 7.27% QoQ, and the average daily new addresses rose by 11.06%. TVL Rises, Liquid Staking Sees Increase The report also highlighted a concerning trend in developer engagement. NEAR saw a significant drop in its weekly active core developers, decreasing by 41.28% from 177 to 104. Similarly, the number of weekly active ecosystem developers fell by 19.70%, from 286 to 230. In terms of decentralized finance (DeFi), NEAR’s Total Value Locked (TVL) recorded a modest increase, ending Q3 at approximately $251.44 million, which is a 7.63% rise from the previous quarter. Related Reading: Storm Ahead? Bitcoin Price Could Tumble 20% Due To M2 Supply Concerns Notably, NEAR’s liquid staking TVL also grew by 9.85% QoQ, reaching around $279.66 million. The LiNEAR Protocol accounted for a TVL of approximately $145.14 million, while the Meta Pool saw a 12.70% increase, totaling around $126.61 million. At the time of writing, the NEAR token is trading at $6.745 and has seen substantial gains of 27% and 46% in the fourteen and thirty day time frames respectively, while on a year-to-date basis it has seen a massive 266% surge. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com