Perplexity AI Puts NEAR Past $130 by January 2027, Calling Odds Slim

A $130 Path Drawn by Perplexity AI

Perplexity AI has mapped a speculative route that would carry NEAR Protocol (NEAR) past $130 by January 1, 2027, and the same model rates the odds of getting there as highly unlikely. The scenario starts with a coordinated initiative in which a consortium of major technology companies and leading AI research institutions designates the network as the primary high-performance Layer 1 blockchain protocol for a large-scale decentralized AI agent network and data marketplace. From there, autonomous agents would run their coordination, payments and scalable verifiable computation on NEAR. A marketplace layered on top would let those agents trade data and services with each other, multiplying transaction demand beyond what human users generate on their own. Activity at that scale would push significant volume on-chain and install the NEAR Protocol as core infrastructure for the decentralized AI economy, which is the transmission channel the price targets depend on. The numbers scale with market conditions. If a full-blown bull market returns and external conditions stay favorable, the model puts the token at $50 to $70, with an ambitious extension above $130 into early 2027. A second AI scenario already on record frames a similar band from the other side: a Microsoft Copilot scenario sketched $45 to $80 by 2027 under comparably speculative assumptions. Both runs share the same architecture, a bull case contingent on AI-agent adoption, and neither presents it as a base case. Perplexity AI's own framing is blunt. The outcome should be read as entertainment rather than a realistic outlook, because reaching those levels would require extraordinary coordination among major technology and AI players that is currently highly unlikely. That hedge sets the weight the call deserves. The NEAR price has yet to validate any of it, and nothing in the current market structure prices the scenario in; the forecast describes a distribution tail, not a projection for the weeks ahead.

ETF Access, Supply Cuts and $30Bn in Volume

The call does not land on a static network. Bitwise launched a spot NEAR Protocol (NEAR) ETF in late September 2026, giving the token regulated institutional access and drawing early inflows, although flows have since run mixed: one recent reading logged an estimated $7.81M in net outflows over 11 sessions. Governance moved on supply at the same time. The House of Stake, the network's DAO, approved a proposal to cut maximum annual token issuance gradually from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. The reduction is staged across two years, so supply growth slows progressively rather than in a single step. Infrastructure kept compounding as well. NEAR Intents, the cross-chain execution layer, has pushed cumulative cross-chain volume past $30Bn, with rising fee capture that funds buybacks. Engineering added quantum-resistant account signatures based on ML-DSA, and a broader post-quantum roadmap remains in progress. On the AI side, the network has expanded NEAR Protocol (NEAR) AI Cloud, integrated Brave Leo for private inference and added new model support, alongside Confidential Intents for privacy-focused execution. Tokenized-asset expansion runs through Ondo Finance, whose intelligent portfolios went live on NEAR Intents with cross-chain execution across more than 100 assets and tokenized stocks on 35-plus chains. An ongoing NEAR Hackathon keeps developer activity visible. On the chart, the token has been consolidating in the $3.50–$3.70 range on higher timeframes after a broader pullback earlier in the cycle. Resistance stacks at $5.00–$5.50, and a sustained breakout above $6.00–$7.00 would confirm intermediate strength and open the path toward the previous all-time high near $20. Near-term support sits at $3.40–$3.50, and holding it keeps the broader recovery trend intact. Momentum indicators read neutral, which leaves room for the overbought conditions a parabolic advance would require. Our NEAR technical analysis page tracks those levels as they move.

NEAR Intents says Ondo Intelligent Portfolios are now live, with 1Click API access across 100-plus assets on 35-plus chains

Whether the Consortium Ever Forms

What separates the scenario from the base case is a single assumption: whether a consortium of technology and AI companies ever standardizes on one chain for agent coordination and payments. Nothing on the public record shows that decision moving, and both model runs treat it as the binding condition. The verifiable build-out is the watchable part. Issuance falls on a published 24-month schedule, cross-chain volume compounds through NEAR Intents, and the AI integrations land on a visible roadmap, so the infrastructure either accumulates into the case the forecasts describe or dates them. That accumulation, not the triple-digit headline, is what a reader can track in the meantime.