The new favorite of the market: NEAR How to ignore the overall storm
Why now is not a time for adventure?
The hawkish stance of the Federal Reserve triggered a large-scale outflow of funds from the digital asset industry, but the artificial intelligence ( AI ) sector managed to turn the overall panic into a localized rebound. According to a latest report by market maker Wintermute, during this shift in market sentiment, Near Protocol ( NEAR ) became the main beneficiary. While major tokens were generally declining, it actually took the leading position in the AI sub-sector.
The released minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting confirm that most officials expect another interest rate hike before the end of the year, pushing the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds to a multi-year high of 5.24%. Market reactions were mixed: The S&P 500 index set a new record high (up 1.2% that week), as expected growth in corporate earnings (29% year-on-year) completely offset the impact of high borrowing costs.
In contrast, the crypto market lacks such fundamental support. Spot Bitcoin ETF saw outflows of $679 million in a single week (the highest since June), while Ethereum ETF experienced outflows of $542 million; CoinGlass recorded forced liquidations amounting to $1.19 billion, of which $1.06 billion were long positions. Bitcoin fell by 3.2% to $83,000; Ethereum tumbled by 7.0%, due to a reputational blow: a researcher from the Ethereum Foundation publicly urged users to immediately migrate to new addresses.
But the greatest impact occurred elsewhere.
The new favorite of the market: NEAR How to ignore the overall storm
The main impact was on the altcoin sector, with a median decline of 3.7%. The previous leader, UNI, saw a sharp drop of 15.8%. Among the 66 largest projects, only 11 managed to close in the green.
However, this crisis has exposed an important trend: investors have not fled to fiat currencies; instead, they have shifted their focus. Funds that have left traditional DeFi platforms have begun to flow actively towards tokens related to artificial intelligence technology.
NEAR has become the absolute leader in this round of trends. This project has always been positioned as a blockchain targeting AI. After a symbolic pullback, it has almost ignored the market turmoil, secured a dominant position in that sector, and continues to maintain strong growth.
Wintermute It is emphasized that there are two key driving factors for this momentum: one is the catalytic effect of technological developments—this network has introduced support for post-quantum digital signatures to enhance security; the other is market mechanisms. Due to inertia, bears attempted to short NEAR the entire market, which in turn triggered a strong bear squeeze: bear positions were forced to cover, further accelerating the rise of the tokens.
Why now is not a time for adventure?
Wintermute believes that it is an unreasonable risk to buy altcoins on rebounds before the yield of U.S. Treasury bonds stabilizes and Bitcoin ETF resumes net inflows. The market will next focus on the latest inflation CPI data from the United States as well as the financial reports of technology giants, which will determine whether the global AI trend will continue to provide liquidity for the entire industry.
