AI Crypto NEAR’s Price May Hit ‘New Cycle High Shortly,’ Top Analyst Asserts

Near Protocol’s native token, NEAR, looks poised to reach “a new cycle high shortly,” according to crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe, who says the token is now his largest crypto holding.

Why is Van De Poppe Bullish For NEAR?

Van de Poppe pointed to NEAR’s growing role in artificial intelligence and cross-chain trading infrastructure as a key reason for his bullish view, highlighting the token’s high correlation with Zcash (ZEC), the leading privacy coin by market cap, that employs NEAR Intents for swapping.

For the unversed: NEAR Intents is a system that helps users move or swap assets across different blockchains by stating what they want to do, while the network handles the execution in the background.

As of Thursday, NEAR Intents held $94.68 million in total value locked, including $38.14 million on Near, $26.93 million on Ethereum and $9.78 million on Bitcoin. That marks a roughly threefold increase from around $31.6 million, if measured from its October 2025 TVL level.

Trading volume has also grown. NEAR Intents processed $2.47 billion in DEX volume over the past 30 days, including $447.93 million in the past seven days and $69.56 million in the past 24 hours. Its cumulative DEX volume stands at $21.14 billion.

Fees and revenue further support the bullish case. The protocol generated $2.39 million in fees over the past 30 days, equal to an annualized pace of $35.08 million. Revenue for the same period stood at $749,792, with annualized revenue near $4.77 million.

“Revenue [is] constantly growing into this ecosystem, meaning that, even though the bear market is relatively bad, it continues to outperform nearly everything and should be an anchor in a portfolio,” Van de Poppe said, adding:

“Despite the fact that it has seen a lot of upside already, I must say that I do expect this one to run towards a new cycle high shortly.”

Technically, NEAR was trading near $2.39 on Van de Poppe’s chart. His setup points to a possible retest of the $2.20–$2.30 area before a move toward $2.98–$3.20.

A decisive move above that resistance zone would strengthen the case for a new cycle high, while a drop below $2.01 would weaken the bullish setup.

NEAR Inverse Head-and-Shoulders Setup Targets $5.35

NEAR’s weekly chart is also flashing a potential inverse head-and-shoulders setup, a bullish reversal pattern that often appears after a prolonged downtrend.

The structure shows a left shoulder near $1.70–$1.80 in mid-2025, a deeper head around $0.80 in early 2026, and a possible right shoulder forming near the same $1.70–$1.90 support zone.

The neckline sits near $3.05, which also lines up with a major horizontal resistance level.

A weekly close above $3.05 would confirm the breakout and open the door to a measured move toward $5.35, based on the pattern’s height. That would mark a gain of about 140% from current levels near $2.23.

NEAR must first reclaim its 100-week EMA (purple) near $2.58, followed by the neckline. A drop below the right-shoulder zone, also aligning with the 50-day EMA (red) near $2, would weaken the bullish reversal setup.