NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Whales Face $25.9M Losses on Rally-Fighting Shorts

NEAR Whales Trapped in Shorts

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) has rallied hard enough over recent sessions to leave two whale wallets carrying combined unrealized losses of roughly $25.89 million on their short positions, according to on-chain position data as of September 27, 2026. The first address, beginning 0xfe7c, is short approximately 4.32 million NEAR at an average entry of $2.55; as the price climbed, the unrealized loss on that book swelled to about $12.44 million. On the afternoon of September 26 the wallet began trimming, closing shorts covering roughly 771,700 NEAR and realizing a loss of about $1.77 million. The second address, beginning 0xdd53, holds a short of roughly 4.31 million NEAR at an average of $2.31, with the unrealized damage on that book near $13.45 million. This second wallet has barely moved: since September 24 it has closed only around 5,293 NEAR of short exposure, keeping the bulk of the position intact against further upside. The NEAR candlestick structure printed higher lows through the week, the exact profile that punishes shorts of this scale. Books of this size are typically built on perpetual venues rather than lending protocols such as Aave, where borrow caps constrain exposure. The same whale also closed several ZEC shorts the same day, realizing about $238,100 in losses, with roughly $9.23 million still unrealized on its remaining ZEC book.

Altcoin Liquidity Cools to 12.5%

The pressure that squeezed those shorts belongs to a broader liquidity wave. Data shared by CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost shows the altcoin market capitalization expanding by more than 32% within a 30-day window in early September, in what he describes as the strongest altcoin liquidity expansion since July 2025 — his on-chain assessment notes that capital has not stopped flowing into the altcoin market since July 2026. The most recent reading places the 30-day growth rate near 12.5%: still firmly positive, but a clear deceleration from the early-month pace. Darkfost urges some caution at this stage, arguing that a capital expansion of a magnitude unseen for more than a year leaves assets that repriced quickly exposed to profit-taking, particularly where leveraged market maker positioning has crowded one side of the book. Our reading of the posted chart, which compares the 30-day change in altcoin market cap against Bitcoin's price and market cap, is straightforward: the sign of the number matters more than the rollover. The risk-reward balance starts to shift only as growth flattens toward zero, and the gauge remains well above that threshold — the expansion has slowed, but not ended.

on-chain assessmenthttps://x.com/Darkfost_Coc/status/2104126043896324403

18 Token Unlocks Next Week

Scheduled supply now stacks on top of this picture. Eighteen altcoins face cliff unlocks in the new week according to the published unlock schedule, against a backdrop in which rising probabilities of a Federal Reserve rate hike and a hack on Bitget exceeding $300 million dominated the week's headlines — yet Bitcoin still gained roughly 3.90% over the past seven days. The calendar's heaviest items land on October 2: DoubleZero (2Z) unlocks $113.27 million, equal to 46.78% of its $242.44 million market cap, and Bitway (BTW) releases $105.67 million, 3.62% of a $2.91 billion cap. Ethena (ENA) follows the same day with $25.33 million, a comparatively mild 0.93% of its $2.71 billion valuation. Earlier in the week, Falcon Finance (FF) unlocks $32.34 million on September 29, or 10.58% of its market cap, while small caps absorb proportionally larger hits: Sign (SIGN) releases $2.11 million, 13.02% of its cap, on September 28; corn (CORN) $1.59 million, 11.69%; and Lagrange (LA) $2.14 million, 15.04%, on October 4. Kite (KITE) and EigenCloud (EIGEN), the token tied to the restaking ecosystem that grew out of liquid staking, unlock $15.95 million and $9.95 million respectively on October 1. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on MEXC.

Inflow Persistence Is the Pivot

One thread ties the three items together: capital, not sentiment. Inflows powered the altcoin expansion, inflated the short books now bleeding on NEAR, and will meet roughly $250 million of fresh supply from next week's largest unlocks. The load-bearing record here is primary data anyone can query — the on-chain whale ledger and the market-cap chart as of September 27. COINOTAG's reading is simple: a deceleration from 32% to 12.5% is cooling, not reversal. Whether liquidity keeps arriving decides both the trapped whales' fate and the market's ability to absorb the unlock wave without breaking the expansion thesis.