NEAR Protocol is an AI-native blockchain designed to power decentralized applications and intelligent agents with user-owned AI, chain abstraction, and sharded scalability for internet-scale adoption.

The project is trending because the AI-crypto convergence narrative is dominating market attention, and NEAR positions itself as the foundational infrastructure layer for this shift. Its chain abstraction technology removes cross-chain friction, letting users interact seamlessly across ecosystems — a major pain point in Web3. The "User-Owned AI" framework ensures agents act in users' interests, not