NEAR Cracks the Top 20: Why Bitwise's Matt Hougan Is Paying Attention | Social NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

NEAR Protocol’s native token has kept rallying even as momentum cooled across much of the crypto market. The article says NEAR pushed into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap this week after posting roughly 125% gains over the last 30 days, before correcting earlier today. It credits Bitwise’s Matt Hougan with the view that NEAR’s appeal goes beyond hype: its AI roadmap is backed by a business already producing real activity and revenue. The piece frames NEAR as focused on an AI-driven future, but notes that—at least today—users remain mostly human, rather than AI agents transacting at scale.