Coin No. 21. $NEAR
NEAR in 2026 is not just a convenient first-level network with understandable account names and developer-friendly features. The project has gone through the hype phase around sharding and ease of use, survived a serious market crash, and transformed into an infrastructure for the economy of autonomous agents, confidential artificial intelligence, and inter-network interactions with real products that generate income, transitioning to a deflationary model.
Simply put:
NEAR is one of the most user-friendly and scalable blockchains thanks to Nightshade technology (sharding). Blocks are created in about 600 ms, final confirmation — about 1.2 seconds, fees are low, there is built-in account abstraction and mechanisms for seamless interaction between networks. Major players are entering the ecosystem through artificial intelligence infrastructure (NEAR cloud solutions, tools for private agents), integrations with browsers and services with tens of millions of users. The total amount of locked funds is about $100–110 million, but the focus is shifting from financial protocols to real use through the intentions of users and AI agents.
What is the essence of $NEAR in April 2026?
Main turning point — end of 2025 / beginning of 2026:
halving inflation (approximately from 5% to 2.5% per year), complete unlocking of supply, transition to governance through network participants' voting and launch of products that direct revenue to buyback and burning tokens.
With increased activity:
burning + buyback may exceed issuance → net deflation.
Key features (updated for 2026)
— New tokenomics: inflation reduced, all supply already in circulation. With high activity, burning exceeds issuance.
— Staking income: about 2.5–4% annually, focusing on participation in network governance.
— Burning and buyback: 70% of fees are destroyed, part of the income is directed to buyback tokens from the market.
— Complete unlocking: pressure from early investors has disappeared.
— Nightshade sharding: separation of transaction processing and confirmation, private segments of the network, potential throughput of more than 1 million operations per second.
— AI infrastructure: cloud solutions, private computing, autonomous agents.
— Ecosystem: tens of millions of active addresses per month, hundreds of thousands of users daily, growth in application revenues.
Fundamental assessment: 8.7 / 10 ⭐️
Advantages:
• Transition to a deflationary model with increased network usage
• Strong synergy: artificial intelligence + blockchain
• Ease of use: clear accounts, low entry threshold
• Reliability: stable network operation and constant updates
• Interest from major players
Disadvantages:
• Strong competition from other networks
• Low activity in the financial sector compared to peaks
• Decrease in yields for holders after inflation reduction
• High price volatility and market caution
Key events 2025–2026 :
• Reduction of inflation and launch of governance through voting
• Increase in the number of network segments and development of sharding
• Launch of infrastructure for artificial intelligence
• Emergence of products with real income and token buyback
• Integrations with major services
• Complete unlocking of supply
NEAR tokenomics (in detail) :
• Model without strict limits, but with reduced inflation (~2.5%)
• Circulation: ~1.29 billion tokens
• Staking income reduced, but offset by potential deflation
• 70% of fees are burned + additional buyback
• All unlocks are completed
• With increased usage, a sustainable deflationary cycle is possible
Context of April 2026 :
NEAR is no longer just another scalable blockchain.
Reduction in inflation, completed unlocking, and real products in the field of artificial intelligence make it one of the contenders for the role of infrastructure for the economy of autonomous systems and confidential computing.
If network usage grows, and AI scenarios and interoperability become mainstream — the growth potential for $NEAR is indeed serious.