Bitwise began trading the first US spot exchange-traded fund for the NEAR token on NYSE Arca on Tuesday, under the ticker NRR and with a 0.75 percent management fee.
Unlike the first generation of crypto ETFs, the fund stakes what it holds. Bitwise runs the staking in-house, and the rewards accrue to shareholders through the fund’s net asset value rather than as a separate payout.
NEAR traded at about $4.93 at launch, giving it a market value of roughly $6.5 billion and a place among the 20 largest cryptocurrencies that are not stablecoins, The Block reported.
The pitch leans heavily on artificial intelligence. Bitwise chief executive Hunter Horsley said a shift towards an economy in which more and more happens through AI agents could unlock an enormous new frontier, and the firm is positioning NEAR as infrastructure for that economy and for decentralised applications more broadly.
NRR joins Bitwise’s single-asset funds for bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP and Hyperliquid, a line-up that shows how far the US product shelf has widened beyond the two largest tokens in little more than a year.
What the launch does not come with is a yield figure. Bitwise has not said what share of its NEAR it will stake or what return shareholders should expect after fees, and because staking rewards are paid in more NEAR, they do nothing to protect holders if the token falls.
The AI agent economy the fund is selling is also still mostly a forecast. Whether investors want that thesis wrapped in a 0.75 percent fee is something the first weeks of flows will answer.
