NEAR Token Drops 5% Despite Bitwise Launching Staking ETP

NEAR Protocol's native token slumped 5.42% on Friday, falling from $2.294 to $2.170 within 24 hours, even as Bitwise launched its NEAR Staking Exchange-Traded Product (ETP), a move aimed at boosting institutional exposure. The decline came amid a broadly subdued day in the crypto market, with Bitcoin also pulling back from recent highs.

Bitwise’s new NEAR Staking ETP offers regulated investors access to staking rewards through a traditional financial product, a major step for mainstream adoption. Despite this development, NEAR saw intensified bearish momentum during the U.S. morning hours, breaking key support at $2.220 on heavy trading volume.

Technical indicators show the token faced repeated rejections near the $2.290–$2.298 resistance zone. A volume spike at 07:00 pushed the price to a low of $2.172, forming a possible double bottom with a later $2.167 candle—hinting at short-term stabilization despite the broader downtrend. Over the final hour of the period, NEAR traded in a narrow consolidation range between $2.169 and $2.171, after a brief recovery attempt at $2.175 failed to hold.

The broader market also reflected growing bearish pressure. The CD20 Index, tracking leading crypto assets, dropped 1.81% over the last 24 hours, falling from $1,788.41 to $1,756.06. The sharpest decline occurred after 13:00 on July 4, when the index shed nearly $15 in a single hour. Despite recent milestones in tokenization and institutional infrastructure, investor sentiment across crypto remains cautious amid ongoing volatility and resistance at key technical levels.