NEAR is pressing against the 5 USD level after NYSE Arca approved the listing application for Bitwise’s NEAR ETF under the ticker NRR, extending a rally that has lifted the token more than 170% this year and turned one of 2026’s strongest smart contract platform trades into an ETF story.
SEC filings show Bitwise registered the fund’s shares under Section 12(b) on September 24, with a Form 8-A confirming the exchange had approved the listing application for common shares of beneficial interest in the Bitwise NEAR ETF. The filing trail matters, but so does the distinction inside it: the prospectus states that neither the SEC nor any state regulator has approved or disapproved the securities themselves. NYSE Arca approved the listing; the SEC registration process governs the offering disclosures.
What the Bitwise NEAR ETF will do
The product is designed to track the value of NEAR held by the trust after fees and liabilities, with no derivatives planned. The September 16 amended S-1 sets a 0.75% annual management fee, names Coinbase Custody as the NEAR custodian, and tasks Bitwise with selecting staking agents to operate validators for tokens placed into staking. Creation and redemption baskets will hold 10,000 shares.
Staking is the feature that separates NRR from a passive coin holder. The September 24 prospectus says the trust currently intends to stake 100% of its NEAR holdings under normal conditions, subject to liquidity requirements. Staking expenses will absorb 33% of newly generated NEAR, leaving roughly 67% for the trust itself, with the 0.75% sponsor fee applying separately.
Bitwise Investment Manager is expected to buy the first 20,000 shares for 500,000 USD at 25 USD each, with proceeds used to purchase NEAR at or before listing. The sponsor previously seeded the trust with eight shares for 200 USD.
NEAR price tests 5 USD after a two-week sprint
CoinGecko data show NEAR closing near 2.62 USD on September 16 and trading near 4.96 USD at press time, a 43% seven-day gain that puts year-to-date performance near 176%. The move briefly pushed the token into the 4.80-5.00 region before momentum cooled, leaving the round number as the next psychological barrier.
The rally was already building before the filing. NEAR spot trading went live on Hyperliquid through a NEAR/USDC market on September 23, with Hyperliquid perpetual open interest near 344 million USD and positive funding showing leveraged longs paying shorts. Bitwise had also added staking to its NEAR filing back in July, when the token traded near 2 USD, naming NYSE Arca, Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon as infrastructure partners at the time.
Technicals are strong but stretched
The momentum snapshot remains firmly bullish. The 14-period Money Flow Index stands near 77.01, signaling heavy buying pressure and sitting close to the upper end of its normal range. The Know Sure Thing indicator is strongly positive near 912.24, well above its signal line around 626.11, and both readings continue to rise.
An MFI near 77 also flags conditions many traders consider overheated. NEAR has moved from roughly 2.30 USD in mid-September to nearly 5 USD in under two weeks, leaving price far above the moving averages from the earlier consolidation. Recent market structure puts first support around 4.20-4.30, with a deeper zone near 3.70-3.80. A clean break through 4.80-5.00 would remove the ceiling on the advance, while a failure to hold the low-4 USD range would represent a larger reset.
Staking economics and the European precedent
The staking feature could change how investors value the product. Additional NEAR generated through validators increases the trust’s holdings after expenses, feeding directly into net asset value. Investors will not receive every staked token, since one third goes to staking agents, the custodian and the sponsor, but the remainder compounds the fund’s asset base.
Bitwise already operates a European version of the trade. Its Frankfurt-listed NEAR Staking ETP recently crossed 100 million USD in assets as the price climbed, though reporting found much of that increase came from token appreciation rather than fresh unit creation. The same distinction will matter for NRR: a higher NEAR price automatically raises the value of trust holdings, while share creations are the cleaner signal of new investor capital.
When does trading start?
The September 24 Form 8-A registers the shares for NYSE Arca and the final prospectus states the sponsor first intended to use it that day. NRR shares are expected to list subject to notice of issuance, and the filing materials reviewed did not specify a confirmed first trading date. Once live, authorized participants will create and redeem in 10,000-share baskets using NEAR or cash.
Until then, NEAR holds a 5 USD decision point with ETF demand on one side and an increasingly stretched technical picture on the other.
Market snapshot at 12:00 UTC on Sept. 25, 2026: BTC 84,606 USD, ETH 2,716.64 USD, SOL 120.81 USD (CoinGecko).
staking 100% of trust NEAR is the interesting part here. 33% of emissions eaten by staking costs on top of the 0.75% fee tho
0.75% wrapper fee plus staking costs that eat a third of emissions, versus staking natively and keeping close to everything. advisors wont run that math for clients
33% of emissions to staking costs plus the 0.75% fee is steep. still, an Arca ticker next to the big coin funds normalizes L1 exposure for advisors
67% of staking rewards still beats cold storage earning nothing. coinbase custody plus vetted validators is fine imo
170% YTD and the 8-A lands now. classic buy the rumor setup, just hope listing day isnt the local top
from 2.62 to testing 5 in about a week and now an NYSE Arca ticker. NEAR holders ate extremely well this month
^ and still, the prospectus literally says the SEC has not approved or disapproved the securities. everyone keeps skipping that part
that disclaimer is in literally every ETF prospectus and every rally ignores it anyway. 19b-4 clearance is about the listing mechanics, nobody at the SEC blessed NEAR fundamentals
NRR sitting next to the other single asset funds on Arca. real question is day one volume, that decides if this matters
day one volume is the whole ballgame. SOL and DOT single asset funds took weeks to find real flow, NRR likely starts thin and the discount chatter starts by week two
day one volume for single asset L1 funds has been rough across the board, even the big coin ETFs took weeks to find a floor
Ticker NRR. Back in my day you needed revenue for an exchange listing. Now it is a coin in a box with a fee attached.
coin in a box with a fee attached is exactly it. coinbase custody, staking agents, 75 bps, none of it changes what NEAR does. people will pay the wrapper anyway
176% YTD and i sold half my stack at 3.40. the pain is indescribable
sold half at 3.40 and it ran straight to 5 with the NRR news on top. classic pain, at least you kept the other half
eight shares for 200 USD in the seed portfolio means they expect institutions to ladder in. ETF wrappers for L1s is just the standard template now
eight shares in a seed portfolio is also how bitwise started every other fund. laddering in works fine, the 0.75% fee on a staking asset is the part that stings when native staking pays you