NEAR Protocol Floats 30 Million NEAR Sovereign Fund

NEAR News

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) is weighing a sovereign fund capitalized with roughly 30 million NEAR from the protocol treasury, according to a governance forum post published Aug. 3 by co-founder and NEAR Foundation CEO Illia Polosukhin. The proposal, framed as the beginning of a stakeholder conversation rather than a binding directive, would preserve a portion of the network's treasury as a long-duration endowment instead of immediately spending or burning those assets. Under the outlined concept, current and future protocol revenue could be pooled into the fund, with returns allocated to validator support, multiparty computation providers, and other public goods. Polosukhin emphasized that the post is a draft for discussion, not a mandate, and invited validators, token holders, House of Stake participants, and the wider community to review the structure. The initial base would draw on the existing protocol treasury of about 30 million NEAR, described as roughly $53 million, creating a dedicated financing source for network security. The idea borrows from sovereign wealth funds in Norway and Singapore, where a preserved capital base funds recurring public expenditures, but the crypto version would hold the native token and measure performance in NEAR. Over the next two weeks, commenters can raise questions about strategy, custody, risk limits, and reporting. If sufficient support emerges, supporters could move toward formal governance steps, including House of Stake review and potential token-holder voting. The consultation period also gives delegates time to clarify whether the vehicle would operate as a staking fund, protocol-owned liquidity pool, or externally managed treasury with exposure caps. That distinction matters because each model carries different custody, counterparty, and market-impact implications for an ecosystem still defining its revenue base. For the broader altcoin sector, the experiment highlights a shift from simple token burns toward structured treasury management, though no launch date, target yield, or final spending formula has been confirmed.

The economic design behind the proposed fund extends a broader effort to make NEAR's token model less dependent on issuance. Instead of using protocol revenue solely for token burns, which Polosukhin described as producing only a temporary supply reduction, the plan would convert revenue into NEAR, hold it inside a governed vehicle, and direct generated returns toward recurring costs such as the Validator Support Program, multiparty computation providers, and other shared infrastructure. This approach follows earlier changes to the network's supply schedule and fee mechanics. The protocol reduced its inflation rate from about 5% to roughly 2.5% in late 2025, and in February 2026 it activated an Intents fee switch that channels certain revenue toward NEAR purchases. The network has also introduced staking-based payment concepts that convert locked tokens into monthly AI compute credits, adding another potential utility layer. Those moves are intended to connect usage with token demand, though future revenue remains uncertain. In forum responses, participants asked whether the new treasury would rely on staking, lending, protocol-owned liquidity, stablecoins, or other strategies. The questions are significant because staking rewards are largely issuance-based, while lending and automated market maker strategies could introduce counterparty, smart-contract, liquidation, and market risks. Some commenters cautioned that NEAR's decentralized finance markets might not absorb a large treasury without compressing returns or increasing risk. The discussion therefore includes calls for exposure limits, independent oversight, and transparent reporting against a NEAR-denominated benchmark. House of Stake, positioned as the protocol's economic governance body, oversees treasury, inflation, fees, and incentive design, but the sovereign fund concept has not entered a formal vote. In a broader bear market, such governance experiments may become more important as protocols seek durable funding rather than one-off supply cuts. Related efforts to position the network and its Intents system as settlement infrastructure for cross-chain activity, a category adjacent to atomic swap technology, could add future fees, though their scale remains unproven.

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine frames NEAR as sideways after a 2.34% gain, with spot at $1.75. The engine rates the $1.6667 support at 66/100, driven by S3, Fibonacci 0.786 and ATR Lower confluence, while the $1.8391 resistance scores 61/100, based on Value Area High, LVN and Ichimoku Kijun. A MACD bullish signal and RSI at 44.61 suggest stabilizing momentum, but the 0.0062% funding rate and $115.2 million open interest show limited leverage. With Fear & Greed at 25, extreme fear, a reclaim of $1.8391 could open $1.9111; losing $1.6667 would weaken the constructive setup.