NEAR, the native token of the Near Protocol, a layer-one blockchain that was designed as a community-run cloud computing platform, has rallied by approximately 30% after announcing that it had raised $350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global, a New York-based hedge fund.
The funding round also saw participation from Republic Capital, FTX Ventures, Hashed, Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Blockchange Ventures, and MetaWeb Ventures. This funding round also included participation from crypto-native funds and it is regarded as a notable move into crypto and the NEAR ecosystem from more traditional firms.
This is the second fundraiser the platform has done in 2022 as it previously raised $150 million in a round led by Three Arrows Capital, Alameda, and Jump in January 2022.
What you should know
- According to the announcement, “This investment round will accelerate the decentralization of the NEAR ecosystem by supporting growth across industry verticals via ecosystem funds and increasing the number of regional hubs in key community centers across the globe.”
- The announcement also explained that late 2021 and early 2022 saw a wave of venture capital investment in projects building on NEAR. The platform also expects several more fundraising to be announced in the coming weeks, particularly in NEAR- and Aurora-based DeFi projects and applications.
- The NEAR network also touts to have processed more than 110 million transactions and has over 5 million accounts. As of the time of this writing, more than 450 apps are running or building on NEAR, which has the sixth-largest developer community in the blockchain ecosystem with more than 200,000 community members worldwide.
- The cryptocurrency community is buzzing about the adoption of the Near Protocol and its various use cases and announcements. Zoran Cole, the founder of the popular Telegram group Crypto Insiders highlighted that Near Protocol would announce the launch of its own native algorithmic stablecoin called USN as early as April 20.
- The stablecoin will reportedly use a Terra-like native token burn mechanism to maintain the U.S. dollar peg, effectively reducing NEAR supply.
- Additionally, as Cole asserted in his investment thesis, Near will offer stakers an annual percentage yield of around 20%, thus incentivizing DeFi capital rotation toward its pools and boosting NEAR’s demand simultaneously.
Slim Trady, a pseudonymous market analyst, also expects NEAR to reach new all-time highs, noting that there is “no substantial resistance left” on the coin’s chart that could cap its upside moves. He stated, “Don’t act like nobody told ya about $NEAR. Patience. That’s all you’ve ever needed in this market. New ATHs are very #NEAR…teehee.”
Despite being in the top-20 crypto assets by market capitalization, holding the 16th spot, NEAR still remains listed only on a few crypto exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, KuCoin, and Upbit, limiting its exposure, especially in voluminous markets like the U.S.
But Cole noted that Coinbase, one of the leading US-based crypto exchanges, will list NEAR on its platform “in the next couple of months,” noting that it would help boost the coin’s retail visibility.
