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With NEAR firmly breaking above $4 and derivatives activity growing even faster than the underlying token, Near Protocol has emerged as one of the strongest performers in the cryptocurrency market. After hitting an intraday high of about $4.59, NEAR is currently trading around $4.50.
Analyzing NEAR’s potential to reach $5
Compared with the $2.40–$2.60 consolidation seen just days earlier, NEAR’s surge toward $4.50 represents a dramatic shift in market structure. More importantly, the strength of the breakout puts the significant $5 level within reach, with continued buying pressure potentially allowing NEAR to test that threshold in the near term.
According to Santiment, NEAR gained approximately 81% between Sept. 13 and Sept. 20, but open interest denominated in dollars rose by 119%. Nevertheless, NEAR's own measure of open interest increased by just 21%.
The distinction is significant: the 21% increase in token-denominated OI still indicates that traders added significant new exposure, even though a large portion of the 119% dollar increase naturally results from NEAR becoming significantly more valuable.
In September, funding rates also hit roughly 1.6 times their two-month median. Santiment pointed out that while leverage is obviously becoming more and more crucial to the rally, the metrics were not diverging sufficiently to describe positioning as exhaustion. On the contrary, the current structure of the derivatives market might become a foundation for a run toward the $5 target.
Multiple resistances shattered
NEAR has now surpassed a number of resistance levels in terms of price. With extraordinarily high volume, the token quickly broke through $3, $4, and $4.40. Every major moving average is rising significantly below the current price.
However, there is a clear short-term risk. NEAR is now clearly in overbought territory as the daily RSI has risen above 75. In a brief amount of time, the price has also nearly doubled, and funding and leverage have both increased at the same time.
The psychological $5 level comes after the immediate resistance, which is located at roughly $4.60. $5 becomes the most obvious next target if momentum persists. The first area to watch on the downside is $4.20–$4.30.
A more significant correction might reintroduce $3.80–$4.00. The $4 breakthrough is still in place for the time being, but volatility is likely to remain very high as open interest, funding, and price are all rising at the same time.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
