NEAR Protocol continues to thrive in the cryptocurrency industry, with growing usage and the price surge of its native token (NEAR) over the last year.
Over the past week NEAR gained headlines amid the launch of Chain Signatures that allow NEAR accounts and smart contracts to send transactions to any blockchain — enhancing accessibility across multiple chains.
According to a Flipside report sent to Techopedia, NEAR Protocol experienced impressive growth in total value locked (TVL) and monthly transactions — 18m new users since the start of 2024.
A Flipside report shared with Techopedia revealed that Near Protocol’s ecosystem has been experiencing an array of successes since the start of 2024.
The protocol’s TVL has nearly tripled since the start of 2024, surging from $90.7 million to $324.6 million between January and early June, reaching an annual high of $366.1 million in mid-May.
Even though the protocol’s overall TVL levels have slightly dropped since May, they remain around three times higher than they were at the start of 2024.
Additionally, NEAR’s transaction volume has also witnessed uninterrupted, upward growth throughout the first six months of 2024 with the token’s month-over-month (MoM) transaction volume surging from 88.2 million transactions to 231.8 million between January and May.
NEAR Closing the Gap with BSC in New User Accumulation
The successes in the protocol’s TVL and MoM volumes were accompanied by an “explosive” new user growth, seeing how NEAR had managed to attract the second-most new users of any recorded chain in the first quarter of 2024, being surpassed by Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which has historically been dominating charts for several years now.
In the first quarter of 2024, NEAR saw 18 million new users and continued the positive momentum into the second quarter of 2024, standing behind BSC and Solana.
Flipside highlighted:
“In response to this massive user influx, the NEAR team added two more shards to the chain (for a total of 6 shards) in May 2024, increasing NEAR’s network capacity by ~50%. This upgrade was implemented live without any network downtime or disruption to user transactions, and additional shards can be added in perpetuity to meet the chain’s future growth.”
NEAR Protocol’s February launch of HERE Wallet’s Telegram integration, which lets users create Web3 accounts using their Telegram credentials, execute token transfers, and mine HOT tokens, has further accelerated the protocol’s successes. This helped it win the race in quarterly new wallet growth, surpassing BSC in the second quarter of 2024.
However, NEAR’s on-chain activity seems to be mostly driven by existing users rather than new wallets. New users made 55.4% of all transactions in February 2024 but only 7.4% in June.
Bridging Inflows Continue to Surpass Outflows
The volume of assets bridged onto NEAR exceeded bridging outflows for five out of the six months so far in 2024, with bridged inflow volume growing by 2.2 times between January and May and outflow volume falling by 12.8% during the same time.
In addition, the USD-dominated value of assets bridged to or from NEAR increased by 67.5% between January and May 2024, with four out of five NEAR’s top-bridged tokens being USD stablecoins.
The report highlighted that in terms of volume, USDC was the top-bridged token on NEAR followed by three other USD-based stablecoins and STNEAR (staked NEAR).
“The fact that STNEAR is the only non-stablecoin in the top 5 (ranked #3) reflects the growing trust and reliance on NEAR’s growing range of stablecoin-based activities, which are fundamental to the chain’s expanding DeFi landscape.”
With stablecoins having a wide array of uses in decentralized finance protocols for activities such as yield farming, liquidity provision, and lending/borrowing, the heightened preference for stablecoins on NEAR could suggest that users are starting to leverage NEAR’s DeFi ecosystem to generate returns without having to expose themselves to the volatility that other cryptocurrencies are usually prone to.
NEAR Protocols Success Attributed to AI Integration
Speaking with Techopedia, Anndy Lian, an inter-governmental blockchain adviser, noted that NEAR’s latest add-on, the launch of Chain Signatures, may have been one of the reasons may also be attributed to NEAR’s focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
Flipside noticed that there had been a significant focus on AI-powered applications through the formation of the NEAR.AI R&D Lab and the NEAR Foundation’s recent 1 million NEAR token delegation to NEAT, a roll-up protocol designed for scaling AI applications on NEAR.
Lian highlighted that the fusion of AI and blockchain technologies holds promise for innovation, efficiency, and new economic models.
“AI can improve consensus algorithms, detect anomalies, and enhance security across blockchain networks. Privacy-focused AI techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs, can protect user data while maintaining transparency. AI-powered smart contracts can dynamically adapt based on real-world events or data.”
He added that, given NEAR’s recent surge, which was powered by AI, exploring AI use cases could be a strategic move to further enhance the protocol in the future.
The Bottom Line
NEAR Protocol is heading through 2024 with a wave of energy behind it.
The protocol’s TVL and monthly transaction volumes have seen impressive increases, and the integration of AI through the NEAR.AI R&D Lab and initiatives like Chain Signatures and HERE Wallet’s Telegram integration are helping further.
Source: https://www.techopedia.com/news/near-protocol-keeps-growing-in-tvl-and-adds-18m-users
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
