NEAR Gains Spot Trading on Hyperliquid, Boosting Market Depth

NEAR Protocol announced that its token is now tradable on Hyperliquid’s spot market, pairing NEAR with USDC. The addition sits alongside an existing perpetual futures market that already shows strong interest.

Spot launch and immediate market impact

Hyperliquid users can now buy and sell NEAR directly for USDC. The token traded near $4.33 shortly after the launch, close to its 52‑week high of $4.46. The spot listing follows a rapid price rally that lifted NEAR from around $3 in mid‑September to above $4, a gain of roughly 40%.

Derivatives activity remains robust

NEAR perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid held about $344 million in open interest on the day of the announcement, with 24‑hour volume near $269 million. Funding was positive at 0.0017 % per hour, indicating that long positions were paying shorts. The platform offers up to 10× leverage on the NEAR perpetual contract.

Potential effects of spot trading

Spot availability provides a non‑leveraged avenue for investors and allows market makers to hedge between spot and perpetual positions. Monitoring spot volume will help gauge whether demand extends beyond leveraged trading, which could influence future price stability and liquidation risk.

Broader ecosystem developments

NEAR’s recent growth includes increased activity in its Confidential Intents layer, which surpassed $70 million in total value locked and triggered an incentive snapshot. The layer routes transactions through a private shard, supporting cross‑chain swaps across more than 30 blockchains and reducing exposure to front‑running.

Additionally, NEAR partnered with Ondo Finance to introduce tokenized stocks and commodities (e.g., Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, QQQ, silver, gold) that can be accessed via NEAR Intents, expanding the protocol’s use cases beyond pure crypto trading.