NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Price: Jumps 11% on Quantum Upgrade as Arthur Hayes Stays Bullish

TLDR

• NEAR rallied more than 11% on Saturday after the protocol said its accounts can already use quantum-resistant signatures.
• NEAR Intents passed $33.29 billion in cumulative volume, with $4.76 billion in the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama.
• A draft proposal would cut maximum annual token issuance to 1.6% from 2.5% over two years.
• NEAR-focused ETFs took in about $5.13 million in one day, lifting assets to around $66 million.
• Analyst Michaël van de Poppe expects a short pullback before NEAR moves toward new yearly highs.

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NEAR Protocol (NEAR) rose more than 11% on Saturday after the network said its accounts are already protected against future quantum computers. The token gained over 12% across 24 hours and was trading near $5.24.

The move stood out against the wider market. Total crypto market capitalization rose only about 0.5% in the same period, while altcoin market capitalization was flat to slightly lower.

NEAR said on Friday that accounts can already use ML-DSA, a digital signature type built to withstand quantum computers. Holders do not need to move their coins to get the protection.

Cryptographic agility is a baseline requirement for the blockchain industry. Upgrading signatures should be a routine operation.

NEAR accounts already support the post-quantum ML-DSA signature scheme, with no asset migration required.

The Near One team has also been working on… https://t.co/CQpZT6EhFz

— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) October 9, 2026

A second change, NEP-655, hides account keys entirely. It is running on a test network, and a full launch is expected within weeks. The protocol said it was designed with quantum threats in mind in 2018.

Intents Volume and Fee Buybacks

NEAR Intents, which lets users move assets between blockchains, reached $33.29 billion in cumulative decentralized exchange volume. About $4.76 billion of that came in the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama.

Total value locked stood at roughly $223 million. Of the $7.81 million in fees collected over the month, $2.15 million was used to buy NEAR on the open market and return it to holders.

The team also said it is designing the system’s wallet contracts to accept ML-DSA. That ties the quantum work directly to Intents.

A draft proposal filed on Wednesday would lower maximum annual token issuance to 1.6% from 2.5% over two years.

NEAR ETFs also drew money. Bitwise’s NRR product took in about $5.13 million in a recent day, lifting NEAR ETF assets to around $66 million, even as some other altcoin ETFs saw outflows.

Analysts and Market Sentiment

Analyst Michaël van de Poppe called NEAR “such a beautiful chart” and said a sweep of the lows was bullish from a day-trading view. He expects “a little pullback” before the token moves back toward new yearly highs. He added that if this cycle resembles 2017, returns could be substantial as adoption arrives.

Analyst Jesse Olson said on X that NEAR continues to flip bullish on higher time frames. He noted that the price broke out of a 4.5-year downward trendline. Olson expects pullbacks along the way, with a possible retest of the trendline.

$NEAR continues to flip bullish on higher time frames.

Price broke out of the 4.5 year downward trendline.

We expect pullbacks along the way, retest trendline and/or blue line? pic.twitter.com/6RxcELwMbA

— Jesse Olson (@JesseOlson) October 10, 2026

The case was also made in person this week. The RollUp founder Andy posted a video showing Arthur Hayes reportedly remained bullish on NEAR. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin joked at the TOKEN2049 Singapore conference about the token reaching triple digits.

NEAR has also outperformed over the longer term. It is up about 121% over the past 30 days, compared with roughly 6.4% for Bitcoin. Only NEAR and Cardano were still up over the last week among the major altcoins tracked.

The latest figures show NEAR trading near $5.24 on Sunday, up 7.9% over roughly 25 hours.