NEAR closed at $3.453 after touching $3.572, clearing the $3.33 level that unlocks its milestone airdrop. Confidential deposits crossing $70 million fired the snapshot on 17 September. The tokens still need a three-day average above $3.33, so the clock has started, not stopped.
NEAR Crypto Price Today
The NEAR protocol price closed at $3.453, up 9.72% on the day within a range of $3.063 to $3.572. Turnover reached $1.35 billion, a rise of 115.5%, equal to roughly a third of its $4.08 billion market capitalization. NEAR ranks 23rd by market value.
NEAR coin chart, daily with EMA 20/50/100/200 and RSI 14. Source: TradingView.
The NEAR blockchain price now trades above every major moving average, 41.6% above the 20-day exponential average at $2.439 and 81.9% above the 200-day at $1.898, with all four stacked in ascending order. The 14-day RSI reads 80.29 against a signal line of 68.48, which is deeply overbought.
Read: Near Crypto Price Prediction
Confidential TVL Crossed $70 Million
near.com announced on 17 September that confidential total value locked had passed $70 million, a threshold that automatically triggers the Drop 1 snapshot under the [email protected] Incentive Milestone Program. The milestone allocates 333,333 tokens to eligible participants.
Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, said confidential execution is moving beyond a niche use case toward the foundation of on-chain finance. The snapshot closes the first phase of the campaign.
How the $3.33 Unlock Works
Milestone tokens convert into NEAR only when the three-day volume-weighted average price holds at or above $3.33. Qualifying for the snapshot does not deliver tokens; that condition does. Eligible wallets need a confidential balance above $100 and an active swap history, and a 2% per-wallet cap limits any single address to about 6,666 tokens.
The close at $3.453 sits 3.7% above the bar, but a three-day average has to be built across three sessions, so one day above the level settles nothing. near.com is the only place tokens can be claimed.
What Confidential Intents Does
Confidential Intents routes transactions through a NEAR private shard, removing mempool exposure and the front-running and extractable-value strategies that depend on it. It achieves this without the computational overhead of zero-knowledge systems, which is the design choice that separates it from most privacy implementations.
NEAR now powers confidential execution across more than 30 connected blockchains. The network reports over $30 billion in cross-chain volume and AI integrations including Brave Nightly, OpenMind, Venice AI and the Government of Bermuda.
Three Different TVL Numbers Are Circulating
Three different total value locked (TVL) numbers are circulating for NEAR, and only one of them triggered the snapshot. CoinGecko lists NEAR’s TVL close to $59.2 million, DeFiLlama shows NEAR Intents closer to $137.8 million, and the confidential pipeline specifically crossed $70 million.
The program measures confidential TVL alone, which is a narrower pool than either aggregate. Live figures come from the project’s own Dune dashboard, so anyone checking a general TVL tracker will see a number that has nothing to do with the milestone.
What NEAR Traders Should Watch
Two more sessions above $3.33 complete the average that releases the tokens. With the close only 3.7% clear of the level and the day’s range running 16.6% wide, a single reversal would reset the count.
Watch whether confidential deposits keep growing after the snapshot, since the program rewards continued activity instead of a one-time qualifying balance.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Crypto assets are unregulated and highly volatile. Readers should conduct their own research before making any trading decisions.
FAQs
1. Why is the NEAR price up today?
The NEAR price is up today because confidential total value locked on near.com crossed $70 million on 17 September, triggering the first snapshot of the [email protected] milestone program. NEAR trades at $3.453, up 9.72% on the session, with volume up 115.5% to $1.35 billion.
2. What is the [email protected] program?
[email protected] is an incentive program that allocates 333,333 milestone tokens once confidential deposits reach $70 million. Eligible wallets need a confidential balance above $100 and an active swap history, with a 2% cap per wallet.
3. When do the NEAR milestone tokens unlock?
NEAR milestone tokens convert into NEAR only once the three-day volume-weighted average price reaches $3.33 or higher. NEAR closed at $3.453, which is 3.7% above the level, but the average still needs two further sessions to complete.
4. What are Confidential Intents?
Confidential Intents route transactions through a NEAR private shard, eliminating mempool exposure and the front-running that depends on it, without the computational cost of zero-knowledge systems. The system is live across more than 30 connected blockchains.
