Near Ecosystem TVL Hits Record High, Boosting NEAR Price 20% Above $4.30

TradingKey - NEAR Protocol Ecosystem TVL Hits All-Time High, Surging Over 20% Intra-Day to Break Above $4.3.

On September 21, the NEAR Protocol (NEAR) ecosystem exploded, driving its native token NEAR price to surge over 20% intra-day, briefly breaking above $4.3 to set a new high since January 2025. Over the past week, NEAR price has surged over 80%, becoming a leader in the crypto market, driven by the ecosystem boom and the official airdrop program.

Recently, NEAR Protocol's total value locked (TVL) across the network has continued to surge, breaking above $250 million today to reach an all-time high. Network fees rose to $860,000 over the same period, indicating that capital inflows and on-chain activity are strengthening in tandem. The driving force behind this is a significant breakthrough in total value locked in the cross-chain intent layer (NEAR Intents) on the NEAR chain, which contributes over half of the TVL and has become the strongest engine for on-chain liquidity growth.

NEAR Protocol TVL, Source: DefiLlama

On top of the NEAR ecosystem boom, the official "NEAR@3.33" milestone airdrop program was triggered, distributing rewards to users who achieved $70 million in Confidential TVL. This significantly reduced short-term selling pressure and conversely motivated the market to actively push up the token price to secure unlocks.

After smoothly overcoming key psychological and technical resistance levels including $2.65 and $3.33, NEAR triggered short covering and momentum buying, rapidly pushing the token into the $4.29–$4.30 range—a medium-to-long-term resistance zone. Moving forward, attention should be paid to whether NEAR can complete position turnover in the $4.0–$4.3 range and hold it as a new support level.

NEAR price chart, Source: TradingView

Whether the intent layer's TVL can maintain retention and continuous growth will be a key metric affecting the medium-to-long-term trend and requires close attention. If this metric continues its growth trend, NEAR price is expected to remain strong, breaking above $4.3 and further rallying toward $8.