NEAR AI staking reaches 1 million: What it means for the NEAR Protocol price

Published on 10/22/2026 at 18:39 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS

Q3 Intents volume reached 10.41 billion USD. The NEAR Protocol price is 4.95 USD on October 22, 2026, down 6.83 percent.

Network use and token economics

On October 21, 2026, NEAR AI reported 1 million NEAR staked for inference.
Bitwise recorded 10.41 billion USD in NEAR Intents volume during the third quarter.
The NEAR Protocol price stands at 4.95 USD as of October 22, 2026, 6.83 percent below the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026.
A House of Stake vote on issuance is scheduled to close on November 2, 2026.

NEAR Protocol, XCRYPTONEAR9, Illustration mit AI erstellt.

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) recorded 1 million NEAR staked for AI inference on October 21, 2026, according to CoinCentral. The NEAR Protocol price is 4.95 USD as of October 22, 2026, down 6.83 percent compared with the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026, according to Investing.com.

NEAR AI marks a staking milestone

CoinCentral reported on October 22 that NEAR AI said 1 million NEAR was staked for inference on October 21. The service uses staking rewards to pay for AI inference while users retain the underlying tokens. Staking locks tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network, so the service connects a network security mechanism with computing use.

The report also said NEAR AI documentation describes the rewards as computing credits. One credit equals 1 USD of platform usage, and the service supports confidential inference and agent hosting. These details describe the product's stated operating model rather than a forecast for token demand.

NEAR Intents volume and issuance

In an October 20, 2026, post, NEAR Protocol quoted Bitwise as reporting that NEAR Intents volume rose from 2.40 billion USD in July to 4.80 billion USD in September. Bitwise put third-quarter volume at 10.41 billion USD, up 66.8 percent from the prior quarter and 891 percent from a year earlier.

The economic counterpoint is HSP-029, a proposal on the NEAR Forum to reduce maximum annual issuance from 2.5 percent to 1.6 percent over 24 months while retaining the measured 90/10 split between staking participants and the treasury. The proposal estimates gross staking yield could decline from 5.268 percent to 3.372 percent at the measured participation level. TokenPost reported on October 22, 2026, that the House of Stake vote is scheduled to close on November 2, 2026, and that validator adoption would also be required.

Market data at October 22, 2026

The NEAR Protocol price is 4.95 USD as of October 22, 2026, down 6.83 percent compared with the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026. According to Investing.com, the daily high is 5.33 USD and the daily low is 4.89 USD. Market capitalization is 6.47 billion USD, ranking NEAR 16th, while 24-hour volume is 972.18 million USD and circulating supply is 1.31 billion NEAR.