NEAR drops 15% from local high as ETF-driven rally cools

What happened

NEAR Protocol has cooled off after one of its sharpest rallies of the year. The token has dropped about 15% from its most recent local high of about $5.58 and was trading at $4.78 on the daily chart, according to U.Today. The pullback followed a nearly vertical increase of more than 200 percent from the $1.60 to $1.80 range in August.

The rally had already carried the token from below $2 earlier in the summer through both $3 and $4 during September. On September 28, NEAR was changing hands around $5.16, having touched a high near $5.42 earlier in the session, and the daily candlestick was down about 4.3% at its lowest point. Reports point to the anticipated debut of Bitwise's spot NEAR exchange-traded fund as the main driver, and the fund has cleared key regulatory steps.

Why it matters

Analysts see room for a deeper retracement. U.Today said a drop to the $3.80 to $3.70 range would indicate a 20% drop from the current level, with the $3.00 area as the next significant test below it. Bulls would need to recover above $5.00 with significant volume to invalidate the reversal signal, and the moving averages sit well above the price.

The product side of the story still carries weight. Bitwise's trust stakes its NEAR and keeps about 67% of the rewards, with Coinbase Custody handling custody and the ticker NRR on NYSE Arca, per a prospectus dated September 24. NEAR Intents, a cross-chain tool, has reportedly processed more than $30 billion in volume. Above the market, reports point to $5.75 to $6.00 as the next area to watch and $6 as the next major psychological barrier.

Analyst views differ from the cautious technical read. Michael van de Poppe described the NEAR price structure as among the most compelling he has observed lately, and said the move looks like the initial phase of a more extensive uptrend.

What the data shows

Market data recorded NEAR at $4.56, with a market capitalisation of $5963610405 and 24-hour volume of $1366267030. From the 2026-09-27 observation of $5.36 to the last reading on 2026-09-29, the price changed by -14.93%.

Technical readings look stretched. The daily Relative Strength Index reads 79.91, above the widely used 70 overbought benchmark, and U.Today noted the indicator had earlier approached 85 before declining. The MACD line sits around 0.79, above the signal line near 0.63. NEAR also broke above the $3.10 to $3.50 band that had capped it during 2025 and early 2026.

What is still unclear

• It is not clear whether the Bitwise spot NEAR ETF has begun trading. Reports describe an anticipated debut and say the fund has cleared key regulatory steps, while publishing a final prospectus dated September 24.
• Whether the pullback deepens is unresolved. U.Today flagged the $3.00 area as the next significant test, while the short-term average near $3.70 sits above the price.
• It is also unclear whether the former $3.10 to $3.50 ceiling becomes a support floor, reports say market participants are watching that level during any pullbacks.

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