Digital asset management firm Bitwise has launched the first exchange-traded product in the United States that tracks NEAR instantly, with trading of the Bitwise NEAR ETF beginning on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR.

The fund provides investors with direct exposure to NEAR through a regulated investment structure, as it will hold the same currency rather than relying on derivative instruments. Bitwise also explained that it intends to pledge a large portion of the tokens held within the fund, a move that could add an operational dimension to how assets are managed inside it.

The launch comes at a time when the NEAR network is seeing accelerated activity at the level of cross-chain infrastructure. Bitwise said the volume of transactions through NEAR Intents has risen to more than $32 billion, compared with less than $1 billion just one year ago, reflecting a clear expansion in the use of the protocol.

Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer, said the company sees growing use of AI agents in the NEAR network, noting that there are already signs of these agents using the network. He added that this type of activity is likely to increase over time, even though most of the current usage still comes from humans.

Hougan also explained that Bitwise has been working on its U.S. product for NEAR since the launch of its related European product tied to the asset in June 2025. With this launch, NRR joins the list of the company’s U.S.-listed single-asset products that track Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, and Hyperliquid.

The new fund comes after a strong upswing in NEAR’s price over the past month, as the coin rose by roughly 167% to trade near $4.94 on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko data. On a year-over-year basis, the coin recorded an increase of about 81%.

Why is NEAR gaining this momentum?

NEAR is a layer-one network dedicated to decentralized applications. In 2024, it changed its strategy toward artificial intelligence, then increasingly focused on cross-chain infrastructure and independent AI agents.

This shift comes as major financial institutions are studying how independent software could increase demand for blockchain-based payment infrastructure. Recent research also suggested that AI agents may drive greater use of stablecoins and tokenized assets, as transactions between machines expand.

NEAR is looking to capitalize on this trend through Intents, a system that allows users and AI agents to specify the desired outcome of a transaction, while external execution parties compete to fulfill it via supported blockchain networks.

Hougan said the design of Intents aligns with the nature of goal-based large language models, while reducing the complexities of bridging between networks and other technical challenges. He added that cross-chain usability was one of the key factors behind the protocol’s growth, since moving between networks has remained a long-standing challenge in the digital-asset sector.

This protocol’s role also stood out this week after NEAR Intents announced it had stopped more than $50 million in transfers linked to the Bitget hack worth $387.5 million. The security system SHIELD said it froze about $503,000 during execution, while funds suspected to have been stolen—amounting to roughly $166,000—had passed through the protocol.

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