NEAR Protocol Surges 10% Before Profit-Taking Halts Rally

AI-focused NEAR token halted its 10% rally on Thursday as traders began to take profits from a rally that was spurred by Bitwise's announcement that it is launching a NEAR exchange traded product (ETP) in Germany. "The NEAR Staking ETP on Xetra opens a new bridge to NEAR for institutions by providing a regulated, exchange-traded way to earn staking rewards," Illia Polosukhin told CoinDesk. "Investors gain compliant access to the NEAR ecosystem and user-owned AI without needing to handle private keys or node operations, and with full price transparency.” The token has now established a key level of support at $2.26 as it looks to consolidate before continuing to the upside. Technical analysis NEAR established strong support at $2.26 with above-average volume during the 24-hour period from 2 July 16:00 to 3 July 15:00. Price broke through the $2.30 resistance level in the early hours of 3 July, reaching a new high at $2.36 during the 08:00 hour with substantial volume confirmation. The 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level provided support during the profit-taking phase, suggesting the underlying uptrend remains intact. During the 60-minute period from 3 July 14:50 to 15:49, NEAR experienced a steep sell-off at 15:04-15:07, where volume spiked to over 310,000 units. A new support zone has been established between $2.26-$2.27, with the closing price of $2.26 suggesting continued bearish pressure in the short term. CoinDesk 20 Index Jumps 2% Before Late Session Selloff Over the last 24 hours from 3 July 15:00 to 2 July 16:00, CD20 exhibited significant volatility with an overall range of $37.27 (2.11%), reaching a peak of $1,811.11 during the 14:00 hour on 3 July before sharply retracing to $1,791.50 by session close. The asset demonstrated remarkable strength during the mid-session rally, gaining over $21 (1.18%) from its overnight low of $1,778.85, with particularly aggressive buying momentum observed during the 09:00 and 13:00 hours that suggests institutional accumulation despite the late session profit-taking.