NEAR price rally meets Bitwise ETF listing, is $5 next?

NEAR trades near $4.96 after NYSE Arca approved Bitwise’s NRR listing, while staking plans and stretched momentum shape the next move.

NEAR has pushed toward the $5 level after NYSE Arca approved Bitwise’s NEAR ETF listing application under ticker NRR, extending a rally that has lifted the token more than 170% this year.

Summary

NYSE Arca approved Bitwise NEAR ETF shares for listing under ticker NRR on September 24.
Bitwise charges 0.75% annually and plans to stake all NEAR holdings under normal conditions initially.
Staking expenses take 33% of generated NEAR, leaving roughly 67% for the trust itself ultimately.
NEAR trades near $4.96 after gaining about 43% weekly and roughly 176% year-to-date so far.
Money Flow Index near 77 signals heavy buying while KST remains strongly positive above signal.

The SEC filing trail shows that Bitwise registered the ETF’s shares under Section 12(b) on September 24, with the Form 8-A stating that NYSE Arca had approved the listing application. The filing names common shares of beneficial interest in the Bitwise NEAR ETF for trading on the exchange.

The wording requires an important distinction. Bitwise’s prospectus states that neither the SEC nor any state securities regulator has “approved or disapproved” the securities themselves. The exchange has approved the listing application, while the SEC registration process governs the public offering disclosures.

What did NYSE Arca approve for the Bitwise NEAR ETF?

Bitwise plans to list the product under the ticker NRR, giving investors exposure to NEAR through a traditional brokerage account. Its primary objective is to track the value of NEAR held by the trust after fees and liabilities, while staking serves as a secondary source of additional tokens. The fund does not plan to use derivatives.

The SEC’s September 16 amended S-1 sets a 0.75% annual management fee. Coinbase Custody will safeguard the fund’s NEAR, while Bitwise will select staking agents to operate validators for tokens placed into staking. Creation and redemption baskets will contain 10,000 shares.

Bitwise’s September 24 prospectus goes further on the staking economics. The trust currently intends to stake 100% of its NEAR holdings, subject to liquidity requirements and operational exceptions. Staking-related expenses will absorb 33% of newly generated NEAR, leaving approximately 67% for the trust.

Bitwise Investment Manager is expected to buy the first 20,000 shares for $500,000 at $25 each. The proceeds are intended to purchase NEAR at or before the listing. Bitwise Asset Management had previously provided $200 in seed capital by purchasing eight shares at $25 each.

Why is NEAR struggling to hold $5 after the ETF catalyst?

NEAR’s price moved rapidly before the latest filing. CoinGecko data show the token closing near $2.62 on September 16 and$ 4.96 at press time. The same source showed a 43% seven-day gain and a roughly 176% year-to-date increase.

The rally briefly pushed NEAR into the 4.80-5.00 region before momentum cooled. That leaves $5 as the next obvious psychological barrier after one of NEAR’s strongest monthly advances of 2026.

As crypto.news reported in its September 23 NEAR market update, NEAR spot trading recently went live on Hyperliquid through a NEAR/USDC market. Hyperliquid perpetual open interest stood near $344 million at the time, while positive funding showed leveraged longs were paying shorts.

The ETF story adds another catalyst to a rally that had already been building. Crypto.news previously covered Bitwise adding staking to its NEAR filing in July, when NEAR traded near $2. The amended structure introduced staking rewards while confirming NYSE Arca, Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon as key parts of the product’s infrastructure.

Could staking change how investors value the NRR product?

The staking feature separates NRR from a product that merely holds idle tokens. Under Bitwise’s structure, additional NEAR generated through validators can increase the trust’s token holdings after staking expenses, which then feed into its net asset value.

Investors will not receive every token generated by staking. Bitwise’s prospectus says the trust retains approximately 67% after 33% is allocated to the staking agents, custodian and sponsor as staking expenses. The 0.75% management fee applies separately.

Bitwise already operates a European NEAR staking product. Its Frankfurt-listed NEAR Staking ETP recently crossed $100 million in assets as NEAR’s price climbed. Reporting on the product found that much of the asset increase came from token appreciation, while outstanding units rose much more slowly.

The distinction between rising assets and fresh investor demand will matter once NRR begins trading. A higher NEAR price automatically raises the dollar value of tokens held by the trust, while share creations would provide clearer evidence that new investor capital is entering the product.

Is NEAR becoming overheated near the $5 resistance?

Momentum remains strong on the technical snapshot. The 14-period Money Flow Index stands near 77.01, signaling heavy buying pressure and placing the indicator close to the upper end of its normal range.

The Know Sure Thing indicator remains strongly positive near 912.24, well above its signal line around 626.11. Both readings continue rising, supporting the strength of the September trend even as the price struggles to establish itself above $5.

An MFI reading near 77, however, places NEAR close to conditions traders often consider stretched. The token has moved from roughly $2.30 in mid-September to nearly $5 within less than two weeks, leaving price far above several moving averages from the earlier consolidation.

Recent market history puts the first support area around 4.20-4.30, with the next deeper zone around 3.70-3.80. A clean move through 4.80-5.00 would remove the resistance that has capped the latest advance, while a failure to hold the low-$4 range would represent a larger reset after the September run.

Crypto.news noted a similar tension in its coverage of NEAR’s 2026 alternative-asset rally, where the token had emerged as one of the stronger smart-contract platform trades as capital moved beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

When could the Bitwise NEAR ETF begin trading?

Bitwise has completed several steps associated with bringing the product to market. The September 24 Form 8-A registers the shares for NYSE Arca, while the final prospectus filed the same day states that the sponsor first intended to use the document on September 24.

The prospectus says NRR shares are expected to list “subject to notice of issuance.” Bitwise’s filing materials did not specify a confirmed first trading date in the documents reviewed. The SEC prospectus further states that the shares are registered only for public sale in the United States.

Once trading begins, authorized participants can create or redeem shares in 10,000-share baskets using either NEAR or cash under the trust’s procedures. Bitwise expects the initial $500,000 seed basket proceeds to be used to acquire NEAR at or before the exchange listing.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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