What is NEAR Protocol (NEAR)?

The Near Protocol has been growing over the last year and it has reached very high prices in recent months. There has been a large interest in it and it is now among the largest cryptocurrencies in the market. But what exactly is the NEAR Protocol? 

If you do not know anything about this project and you would like to have additional information about it, don’t worry, we have created a guide that will answer all your questions. We will get into the details of what the NEAR Protocol is, how it works and why it became so popular in recent months. 

At the same time, we will tell you where you can buy NEAR, how it behaved in the crypto market and which are the main features of this project. Without further ado, let’s get into the details of the NEAR Protocol. 

What is NEAR Protocol (NEAR)?

So what is the NEAR Protocol (NEAR)? According to the official website of this project, NEAR wants to empower millions of individuals to invest and explore new experiences. This can be done thanks to simple, secure and scalable technology. This would let businesses and individuals be part of a more sustainable and inclusive world. 

NEAR Protocol works with something called the Creator Economy. This requires robust infrastructure and a decentralized community in order to work. This computing platform eliminates (or tries to) some of the limitations between different blockchains. 

The Creator Economy works with a focus between creators and communities, which includes Creators, Communities and FInancial tools. Creators produce value, Communities support creators and Financial Tools help make creators and communities sustainable. 

Usually, we see that this economy works today on a one-way path. That means that the creator produces something and fans or the community consumes it. Meanwhile, intermediaries take large commissions just to be in between these two parts of the economy. 

With the NEAR Protocol, it becomes easier for the whole economy to expand. This can be possible thanks to NFTs, DAOs, Fungible Tokens and Open Finance (or decentralized finance (DeFi)). 

Therefore, we see that the NEAR Protocol works with NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and Open Finance (Decentralized Finance). Thanks to the solutions offered by the NEAR Protocol, it is possible for creators to use different resources, including Satori, Astro or Mintbase. 

Thanks to Nightshade technology, it is possible for the NEAR Protocol to improve transaction throughput. This is something that has been always discussed in the cryptocurrency market and by different projects. How to improve throughput? This technology is basically a variation of sharding, which lets the network get divided into different chains and makes it possible for the network to process more transactions. 

Thanks to it, it is now possible to process close to 100,000 transactions per second. Moreover, transactions are processed almost instantly, which means that this protocol is fast and reliable when it comes to processing transactions. Moreover, transaction fees are also close to $0, which makes it possible for users to send and receive payments without having to be worried about large fees. 

The NEAR Protocol has received funding from large companies. Some of the funding was received from Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, a16z, Alameda and many others. This shows how companies are searching for different ways to improve Web3 technology and the solutions that are currently being offered by the crypto market. 

NEAR In the Cryptocurrency Market

Due to this fast expansion in the cryptocurrency market and in recent months, we see that virtual currency is now among the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies in the world. 

When the coin was released, its price was close to $1.2. However, it immediately fell to under $0.60 in November 2020. This did not give strength to the project during the first weeks after being launched. But this was a great opportunity for investors to enter the market. 

As Bitcoin (BTC) started moving higher and it was headed towards new all-time highs, NEAR Protocol and the whole market followed behind. In this case, NEAR Protocol started a bull run that pushed the price of this virtual currency above $7 per coin in March 2021. 

At that time, Bitcoin was making new all-time highs and the coin was ready to continue with the bull trend. Nevertheless, things started to be correct. Indeed, the whole crypto market entered a correction period until summer. The coin fell, in this case, from $7 to $1.7. That means that there was a 75% correction for NEAR Protocol investors in just a few months. 

Let’s not forget that Bitcoin has also moved towards $30,000 before starting to move higher once again during the second half of the year. We also see that the coin recovered very fast. NEAR Protocol was able to start moving above $7 to register new all-time highs already in September. At that time, the coin was already traded above $10. 

But that was not all, the bull market continued for this virtual currency. This is something that did not happen for other coins. Therefore, we can say that NEAR Protocol has decoupled from the entire market and it was able to have a better performance than other digital currencies. This could also show that there have been investors entering the market and purchasing NEAR Protocol coins. 

The virtual currency reached an all-time high above $20 in early 2022. Since then, it has already retraced by 50% and then surged again to $16 per coin in recent weeks. Now, the question is whether this virtual currency will continue expanding or if it will stay close to these levels for some time. 

One thing is clear, NEAR Protocol has already offered great buying opportunities to investors from all over the world since it was released. “Buying the dip” has been profitable for investors that decided to enter the market with this virtual currency since it was released to the market. 

Another thing that charts show is that the coin has been increasing in volume for several months now. Will volume continue to move higher? This would also be dependent on how the crypto market behaves and whether NEAR Protocol will decouple again from the entire crypto market. 

How to buy NEAR Protocol?

It is now time to know how to buy NEAR Protocol. If you have been in the cryptocurrency market already in the past, then you will likely know how to buy this virtual currency. If not, we tell you all you should know in the coming sections of this post. 

Step 1 – Select a Cryptocurrency Exchange and Open an Account

The first thing that you should do is select a cryptocurrency exchange that will support the NEAR Protocol. Take into consideration that some crypto exchanges might not support this digital asset. That means that you will not be able to buy them on these platforms. 

Once you have selected the exchange and you made sure that it supports NEAR, then you can open an account. This is a very straightforward process that became standardized over the last years in most exchanges and trading platforms around the world. 

You will have to share an email account, your password and some private information such as your name, surname and even an ID or selfie. This is necessary as regulatory agencies have been requesting companies to share this information with them and make sure that they follow all the KYC regulations. 

Step 2 – Deposit Funds

The next step after creating an account in a crypto exchange is to deposit funds. In recent years, we have seen how different trading platforms have been adding new payment methods for investors to get access to the virtual currencies they want. 

If you are using a small exchange, it is highly possible that they will support your local currency. Now, if you are using large crypto trading platforms that offer services from all over the world, you might be able to deposit some of the largest currencies such as EUR, USD, BRL, GBP, JPY and many others. 

It is up to you to use the payment method you prefer and the most convenient for you. This will let you buy NEAR Protocol and other digital assets. 

Step 3 – Buy NEAR Protocol

Now that you have created a cryptocurrency trading account and that have deposited funds, you can easily buy NEAR. This can be done through the trading platform that the exchange is offering. The trading platform will let you exchange your fiat currency for NEAR or exchange your fiat currency for other digital currency that could be used as a bridge. 

For example, you can buy USDT with your local currency and then exchange it for NEAR Protocol. USDT is the largest stablecoin in the world and it can be used to process payments and buy digital assets. Most exchanges use it as an alternative to fiat currencies and to the U.S. dollar. 

Where to buy NEAR?

But the question is: where to buy NEAR? We know that there are many trading platforms that are allowing users to buy and sell this virtual currency. But there are some crypto trading platforms that are better than others. We want to make sure that we use the platform that will offer us all the services that we are searching for and that will let you buy NEAR Protocol. 

According to data shared by CoinMarketCap, there are several cryptocurrency exchanges that will let you get access to this virtual currency. Some of these exchanges include Binance, KuCoin, Gate.io, Huobi Global and ByBit. The trading pairs with the largest volume include NEAR/USDT on the BInance platform with 18% of the total trading volume for this virtual currency and NEAR/USDT on the KuCoin platform with 3.77% of the total NEAR trading volume.  

This shows you that you can easily buy this virtual currency using some of the largest exchanges and with large liquidity as well. 

At the moment, Binance is offering 8 different trading pairs for this virtual currency. These trading pairs account for 21.61% of the total trading volume for this virtual currency. This is definitely a lot and it would let you get great liquidity compared to other exchanges. 

The trading pairs offered by Binance include NEAR/USDT, NEAR/BUSD, NEAR/BTC, NEAR/ETH, NEAR/TRY, NEAR/BNB, NEAR/EUR and NEAR/RUB. The number of trading pairs could grow in the future as the exchange expands to other regions as well. 

KuCoin, instead, decided to take a more conservative approach. This virtual currency exchange is offering just two different trading pairs for this coin: NEAR/USDT and NEAR/BTC. Both of them have a total trading volume equal to 3.79% of the total trading volume for NEAR. This shows that 3.77% of the trading volume of NEAR Protocol on KuCoin takes place on the NEAR/USDT trading pair. 

We finally have Huobi Global. This cryptocurrency exchange has three different trading pairs. NEAR/USDT, NEAR/BTC and NAER/ETH. These trading pairs account for 0.94% of the total trading volume of NEAR Protocol around the world. It is up to you to decide which exchange to use. If you are searching for ample liquidity and trading options, then Binance could be a good option.

Instead, if you prefer to get access to reliable platforms that offer you services that Binance cannot offer, then go for any of the alternatives currently available. 

Final Words About NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

NEAR Protocol is one of the projects that is currently attracting attention from investors all over the world. The price action experienced by this virtual currency has allowed investors from different countries to get access to this digital asset and make large profits if they bought it at the right time. 

Nowadays, it is possible to get access to NEAR Protocol using different virtual currency trading platforms and using even fiat currencies. Therefore, it should not be difficult for investors to get exposure to this project. Another thing that you should take into consideration is that this digital asset is also making it possible for users to get access to a new project that is ready to offer new and innovative solutions to the cryptocurrency market. 

If you want to know more about NEAR Protocol you can always do so through their official site and the communities they are creating.