Bitwise Launches First U.S. Spot NEAR ETF With 5% Staking Rewards and $32B Intents

Key Takeaways:

• Bitwise’s NEAR ETF (NRR) is now available on NYSE Arca.
• The fund will stake NEAR with a maximum staking reward of approximately 5% per annum.
• Over $32 billion volume has been processed by NEAR Intents.

User Score

8.7

Bitwise Asset Management has launched the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product offering direct exposure to NEAR, giving traditional investors a new route into the blockchain’s token through brokerage accounts.

The Bitwise NEAR ETF debuted on NYSE Arca on September 29th under the symbol NRR, charging a 0.75% management fee, and offering a combination of the spot NEAR exposure and staking.

NRR does not trade futures or other derivatives of NRR, but rather holds NRR outright. The structure can also cause the investors to demand ETF shares, which in turn could drive purchases of the underlying token to the ETF during its creation, potentially linking capital inflows to demand for the NEAR spot market.

The product offers investors a way to buy NEAR without having to deal directly with private keys and wallets, or go through a crypto exchange.

This family of single-asset crypto offerings has grown to now include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Hyperliquid, the company said in a Monday release.

Read More: Bitwise Launches First Lighter ETP With 0.85% Fee, Bringing LIT to European Markets

Bitwise also plans to institutionalize a significant percentage of NRR’s holdings in NEAR.

The annualized neargstake reward rate was approximately 5 percent as of September 25, but this will not be a guaranteed rate of return. Net asset value will accrue the rewards a stakeholder earns from the fund, not as a fixed yield.

The structure brings in more risks, like the potential for slashing, operational challenges and liquidity problems from not having the tokens available at redemption time.

Read More: Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF Targets $11B HYPE Market

Bitwise is also marking the ETF release with the progress of NEAR’s position in the ecosystem of AI-powered blockchain infrastructure. According to data from Bitwise, NEAR Intents, the network’s cross-chain transaction protocol, has seen over $32 billion in transaction volume, down from under $1 billion a year ago.

The protocol’s goal was to enable users and autonomous software agents to interact in a distributed manner without needing to take care of each routing transaction individually.

Bitwise says this may grow even more important as AI agents start making payments, swaps and other financial transactions for users. NEAR transactions now complete in about 1.2 seconds, and Bitwise reported 100% uptime across the network for six years at this point.

The U.S. opening follows Bitwise’s existing operation in Europe and already has a BaFin-approved staking ETP. As per the data as of June 30, 2026, Bitwise has managed around $9 billion worth of clients’ assets.

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