Bitwise Launches First US Spot Near ETF After Token Nearly Triples Since August

Bitwise's spot NEAR exchange-traded fund began trading Tuesday on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR, offering U.S. investors brokerage-account access to the NEAR token and charging a 0.75% annual fee. The fund will stake its holdings to seek roughly 5% average rewards, which Bitwise notes are not guaranteed and carry network risks.

By AI Newsroom· Reviewed by Pranav, Founder & Editor-in-ChiefPublished 1 minute agoUpdated 1 minute ago0 views

Bitwise Launches First US Spot Near ETF After Token Nearly Triples Since August

Why It Matters

The listing provides a mainstream on-ramp to an AI-focused layer-1 blockchain that has seen large recent price moves, and it follows regulatory changes that made listing crypto spot funds easier. That combination could broaden institutional and retail exposure to NEAR without requiring a crypto wallet or exchange account.

Key Facts

ETF ticker: NRR
Exchange: NYSE Arca
Annual fee: 0.75%
Staking target: About 5% average rewards (not guaranteed)
NEAR recent price (source: Binance): $5.09 (Tuesday)

Bitwise began trading a U.S. spot NEAR fund on Tuesday, listing the product on NYSE Arca as ticker NRR and charging an annual fee of 0.75%. The firm describes the ETF as a spot product, meaning the fund will hold actual NEAR tokens rather than futures contracts, and that shares can be bought and sold through ordinary brokerage accounts.

Bitwise said it will stake the fund's NEAR holdings via its in-house team with the goal of capturing average staking rewards near 5%, which would accrue to shareholders as increases in the fund's net asset value per share. The firm cautioned in disclosures that rewards can vary and staking exposes the fund to "slashing" risk if a validator misbehaves; the fund also concentrates in a single asset and could incur significant losses.

NEAR has experienced notable volatility this year. The token traded around $5.09 on Binance Tuesday, roughly triple its August lows near $1.60, and currently holds an approximate $6.5 billion market capitalization. The asset remains well below its all-time high above $20, however, and earlier in the year it saw a rapid 28% one‑day jump in May tied to privacy, AI and scaling announcements.

NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain whose mainnet launched in 2020. The project emphasizes AI use cases; co-founder Illia Polosukhin, a co-creator of the Transformer architecture, leads an AI research lab launched in May 2024 alongside co-founder Alex Skidanov. Bitwise has highlighted NEAR features such as Near Intents, a cross-chain swap service it says has processed more than $32 billion in volume.

The fund's timing follows regulatory and market developments: Bitwise filed Delaware paperwork for a NEAR fund in April 2025 when NEAR traded around $2.61, and Grayscale filed in January 2026 to convert a NEAR trust into an ETF. In September 2025 the SEC approved generic listing standards that allowed exchanges to list qualifying crypto funds without separate approvals, and several spot crypto ETFs — including those for Litecoin, Hedera and Solana — listed in October 2025.