Crypto Talk

Technical Foundation: What Problem Does Dynamic Sharding Solve?
In June 2026, NEAR completed a network upgrade calledDynamic Resharding(version v2.13). The core value of this upgrade is: when network load surges, the system automatically splits into more shards to process transactions in parallel, without requiring manual coordination or voting.
For the AI narrative, this upgrade solves a critical contradiction:the transaction demands of AI agents are sudden, machine-speed, and non-linear. If a group of AI agents execute tasks simultaneously, they can generate a massive number of transactions instantly, causing congestion and gas spikes on traditional blockchains. NEAR's approach is to let the network automatically scale to absorb that impact.
Core Product: Intents Becomes a Revenue Engine
NEAR's AI narrative is not just a slogan. The core product supporting its realization isNEAR Intents—an "intent-oriented" cross-chain execution layer. Users simply express their desired outcome (e.g., "swap BTC for SOL"), and the system automatically finds the optimal path to execute it, without needing manual bridging or holding multiple tokens.
As of July 2026, Intents' cumulative transaction volume has exceeded$22 billion, generatingover $37 millionin fee revenue. A portion of this revenue is used to buy back NEAR tokens on the open market, creating a positive feedback loop of "usage growth → fee revenue increase → token buyback → improved supply-demand dynamics." The current monthly buyback scale is approximately$3 million.
Differentiation Moat: Privacy and the AI Agent Market
Beyond scaling and cross-chain capabilities, NEAR has built moats in two other directions: privacy and the AI agent economy.
Privacy Layer: In May 2026, NEAR launched theConfidential Intentsfeature, which uses privacy shards and TEE bridges to enable cross-chain transfer privacy—the sender, amount, and path are all hidden, with only the final result visible. USDC has also been integrated into the NEAR AI Agent Market, allowing AI agents to conduct private transactions using stablecoins, addressing the pain point of exposed transaction data in enterprise applications.
AI Agent Market Layer: Launched in February 2026, the NEAR AI Agent Market is a decentralized marketplace for AI agents. Users can post tasks (code review, data analysis, research reports, etc.), AI agents bid and execute the tasks, and settlement is done in NEAR. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin is one of the eight co-authors of the 2017 Transformer paper, a background that lends unique credibility to NEAR's AI narrative.
How Far Can the Narrative Go: Key Signals to Watch
Positive Factors:
Grayscale submitted an amended S-1 filing for a spot NEAR ETF in June 2026, indicating rising institutional interest.In the first four months of 2026, NEAR generated approximately $15.6 million in protocol revenue, with analysts projecting $40-60 million for the full year.The inflation rate has been halved from 5% to 2.5%, reducing supply-side token pressure.
Warning Signals:
A disconnect exists between active users and narrative hype. While NEAR's on-chain activity is not low, real adoption of the AI agent economy has not yet arrived on a large scale.Compared to competitors like Solana, NEAR's developer ecosystem scale and DeFi liquidity depth still lag behind.
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