Bitwise Asset Management announced on September 29, 2026 the launch of the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NYSE: NRR), which it describes as the first spot NEAR exchange-traded product in the United States, giving investors exposure to NEAR while Bitwise stakes the underlying tokens through its institutional staking team.
NRR began trading on NYSE Arca with a 0.75% management fee, according to Bitwise’s announcement, after clearing its final regulatory hurdles on September 24, when NYSE Arca approved the listing and the SEC confirmed the trust’s registration effective via Form 8-A.
Bitwise stakes 100% of the fund’s NEAR holdings, keeping roughly two-thirds of the resulting rewards, targeting participation in an average staking reward rate of approximately 5% as of September 25.
Coinbase Custody will hold the underlying NEAR tokens, while BNY Mellon handles cash custody and administrative services, a split increasingly common among staking-enabled crypto ETFs. Bitwise positioned the launch around NEAR’s cross-chain infrastructure and what it describes as an emerging AI-driven economy.
What NRR Offers on NYSE Arca
The new ETF provides spot exposure to NEAR, the native asset of the NEAR Protocol. Rather than requiring investors to custody NEAR directly, NRR holds the tokens and provides exposure through exchange-traded shares, with NAV calculated against the CME CF NEAR Protocol-Dollar Reference Rate, comparable to the products explained in the best crypto ETF funds in 2025.
| Bitwise NEAR ETF | Details |
| Ticker | NRR |
| Exchange | NYSE Arca |
| Management fee | 0.75% |
| NEAR custody | Coinbase Custody |
| Cash custody/admin | BNY Mellon |
| Staking | 100% of holdings, in-house |
Table 1. Key details of the Bitwise NEAR ETF at launch.
Bitwise said the fund isn’t suitable for all investors. NRR isn’t registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and its shares trade at market prices rather than being individually redeemed.
Why NEAR Intents Matters to Bitwise’s Pitch
A key part of Bitwise’s rationale is NEAR Intents, a protocol simplifying transactions across blockchain networks. Bitwise said NEAR Intents had processed more than $32 billion in volume, up from less than $1 billion a year earlier, with $51.49 million in cumulative fees generated as of September 28.
| NEAR Intents Activity | Current Data |
| All-time volume | $30B+ |
| Supported chains | 35 |
| Cumulative fees | $51.49M |
Table 2. Selected current operating metrics for NEAR Intents.
This provides a concrete measure of the infrastructure behind Bitwise’s AI-and-blockchain thesis, letting applications move assets across chains without manually managing bridges or separate gas assets.
What Staking Adds, and What It Risks
The roughly 5% figure is based on the annualized staking rate as of September 25 and isn’t guaranteed. Rewards accrue through the fund’s NAV, but staking introduces slashing penalties and potential effects on redemption capacity, risks carrying more weight since Bitwise stakes the entire position rather than a partial allocation.
The Network’s Track Record Behind the Fund
NEAR says its network has processed more than 3.34 billion transactions, with a 1.09-second average block time and fees near $0.0002. Bitwise said NEAR has run for six years with 100% uptime and recently reduced inflation to 2.5%, citing a market cap above $6 billion.
At filing, NEAR ranked around 27th-largest by market cap, with roughly $272 million in average daily volume. These figures describe the network, not the ETF, and shouldn’t be read as performance indicators.
Betting on AI Agents as an Investment Thesis
Bitwise is presenting NEAR as infrastructure for an economy where AI agents can transact on users’ behalf, citing a McKinsey projection of $5 trillion in global agentic commerce by 2030, echoing the institutional narratives shaping BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and its effect on institutional demand. The ETF doesn’t provide direct AI-company exposure, since its underlying asset is NEAR itself.
NRR Joins a Growing Bitwise ETF Lineup
The launch adds NEAR to Bitwise’s lineup of single-asset crypto ETPs, alongside products tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Hyperliquid, extending Bitwise’s existing NEAR offering in Europe, where the firm already has a BaFin-approved staking ETP trading. Bitwise reported $9 billion in client assets as of June 30, 2026, across more than 70 investment products.
What this means for you: Bitwise’s NRR provides U.S. exchange-traded exposure to NEAR and incorporates in-house staking of the fund’s underlying tokens. The launch comes as NEAR’s Intents infrastructure reports more than $30 billion in cumulative cross-chain volume across 35 chains, giving the investment product a connection to an active blockchain application layer. NRR remains exposed to NEAR’s price volatility, liquidity, regulatory, blockchain, and staking risks.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. NRR is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is not the same as a direct investment in NEAR. Staking rewards are not guaranteed. Investors should carefully review the fund’s prospectus, fees, objectives, and risk disclosures before investing.
