# NEAR AI’s Staking Service Tops 1 Million NEAR for AI Compute

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/37577
Published: 2026-10-22T06:49:56.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-22T06:49:56.000Z
Section: Technology

> The service supports confidential inference and IronClaw hosting. Customers retain ownership and control of their staked tokens.

NEAR AI’s staking service has more than 1 million NEAR committed, connecting staking rewards to credits for confidential AI inference and IronClaw agent hosting. The milestone marks the scale of the stake, but does not provide a measure of AI usage.

The service launched July 30 as a staking-based payment system for confidential inference and autonomous agents. Inference credits accrue over time based on the amount staked, NEAR’s price and staking APY. Agent hosting follows a separate credit formula.

Customers retain ownership and control of their staked tokens. Network staking rewards go to NEAR AI to pay for eligible services; customers do not receive those rewards as income or yield.

At launch, 500 NEAR qualified for $5 in monthly hosting credits, while 50 NEAR was the minimum stake to activate a first IronClaw agent. No customer count, AI usage measure or breakdown of the reported stake between inference and hosting accompanied the Oct. 21 milestone.