NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Balances Market Setbacks With Promising Innovations

In its recent analysis, market intelligence firm Messari has provided a comprehensive overview of the NEAR Protocol's performance in Q4 2024.

Market intelligence firm Messari has recently released its analysis of NEAR Protocol’s performance in Q4 2024. Here's a summary of the key takeaways:

Despite facing headwinds in the broader crypto market, NEAR Protocol demonstrated resilience through increased activity and strategic developments.

The NEAR token's price initially surged during Q4, reaching a high of $8.19 in December, before retracing to around $4.91 by the quarter's end.

This decline was reflected in a drop in market capitalization, which fell to approximately $5.73 billion—a 2.09% decrease quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).

Consequently, NEAR dropped ten spots in market cap rankings, now sitting at 21st overall, indicating a performance lag compared to other leading assets.

However, NEAR's revenue, derived from network transaction fees, saw a substantial increase during Q4, growing to about $2.11 million—a 26.81% rise QoQ.

This growth can be attributed to heightened transaction volumes and decentralized exchange (DEX) activity, with the average transaction fee during the quarter being roughly $0.0031, a 15.91% increase from the previous quarter.

The NEAR token plays a multifaceted role within the ecosystem, being essential for staking, transaction fees, and storage fees. The protocol maintains a flexible supply model, characterized by an annual inflation rate of 5%.

Of the inflationary rewards, 90% are allocated to validators, while the remaining 10% supports the protocol's treasury. As of the end of Q4, approximately 95.12% of NEAR's total supply was in circulation, with about 49.08% actively staked.

The annualized nominal yield from staking was reported at around 8.95%, with a real yield of 4.55%, providing attractive incentives for holders to stake their tokens.

NEAR enjoyed a surge in address activity and transaction volume during Q4. The average daily active returning addresses rose by 15.82% QoQ, reaching 3.55 million, while the average daily new addresses surged by 29.05% to 361,046.

However, the protocol faced a decline in developer activity, with weekly active core developers decreasing by 13.95% to 159 and ecosystem developers falling by 30.34% to 129.

Concluding Q4, NEAR's DeFi total value locked (TVL) was approximately $240.16 million, reflecting a 4.48% decline from the previous quarter.

The Liquid Staking TVL also experienced a decrease of around 10.32% QoQ, settling at about $250.81 million.

Notably, the LiNEAR Protocol's TVL was approximately $132.41 million, down 8.77%, while Meta Pool's TVL declined by 11.78% to around $111.70 million.

On a positive note, NEAR's average daily DEX volume reached approximately $8.45 million, marking a 25.40% increase from the previous quarter.

Ref Finance emerged as the leading DEX on the platform, accounting for an average daily volume of $8.35 million.

Q4 also saw an uptick in NEAR's stablecoin market cap, which grew to about $683.69 million—an increase of 1.88% QoC and a staggering 880.71% year-over-year (YoY).

As of now, the NEAR's price stands at $3.52, recording a substantial 10% surge in the past two weeks. Yet, still 82% below its all-time record high.