Grayscale Files NEAR ETF S-1 as $202M Volume Boosts Altcoin Spotlight
Grayscale Investment has formally lodged a S-1 form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission - that's the first step towards...
Quick overview
- Grayscale Investment has filed an S-1 form with the SEC to launch a NEAR ETF under the ticker GNSR, marking a significant step towards a publicly traded product.
- The filing outlines the ETF's structure and investment strategy, potentially attracting institutional investment into NEAR amid easing regulations for altcoins.
- NEAR's trading volume surged by 21% recently, although the token has lost nearly two-thirds of its value over the past year.
- In addition to the ETF developments, NEAR is enhancing its platform with AI and privacy features while exploring a new governance model.
Grayscale Investment has formally lodged a S-1 form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission – that’s the first step towards a publicly traded NEAR product and its listing under the ticker GNSR on the NYSE Arca. The filing gives a rundown of the ETF’s structure, investment strategy, and risk tolerance which marks the beginning of a long regulatory road. It’s a big moment for NEAR fans as it looks to offer a widely-recognised NEAR product to investors.
If it gets the green light this could get institutional cash flowing into NEAR at a time when US regulators are making it easier for investors to get in on altcoins. This comes after the SEC introduced some new generic listing standards back in October last year – those changes are designed to speed up the approval process for crypto ETFs beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
NEAR Trading Activity Hots Up as ETF Talk Picks Up Steam
Things have really started to move in the NEAR market in the last day or so. Trading volume has surged, jumping 21% to around $202 million over the past day, as traders and investors take an interest in the NEAR ETF story. The price has also been looking pretty volatile, trading at around $1.54 and having dropped 1.65% over the past day. That puts the market cap at roughly $1.96 billion.
🔥 NEW: Grayscale has filed an S-1 with the SEC to launch the Grayscale Near Trust $NEAR. pic.twitter.com/jattE5j2C4
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) January 20, 2026
It’s worth noting however that despite the short-term interest in NEAR, the token price is actually in a pretty tough spot long-term. Over the last year or so it’s lost nearly two thirds of its value and hasn’t done a lot in the past month. This is typical of what we see with ETFs: structural interest slowly building, but the market price is a bit further behind.
Grayscale Targets Institutions Despite Spotty Fund Performance
Grayscale has been plugging away at trying to get institutional investors on board with its range of crypto funds, even if some of them have seen their performance suffer a bit. This is partly because the crypto market has been really volatile and investors have been rotating into other assets.
Here are some of the numbers to illustrate the point:
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has $14.44 billion in assets under management but has suffered $25.57 billion in outflows since its high.
- Ethereum Trust has $2.67 billion in NAV, which is up $5.1 billion in outflows.
- XRP Trust has $213 million in NAV and has seen $231 million in inflows.
Grayscale thinks that US crypto legislation due later this year could help shore up the market and get more institutions on board.
NEAR Pushes the Envelope on AI, Privacy and Governance
While the ETF story is swirling around NEAR, the platform is also still making strides as a smart contract platform competitor to the likes of Ethereum and Polkadot. They’ve got around $135 million tied up in the network currently and are focusing on making their platform user-friendly, with neat touches like readable account names and wallet-light access.
Looking ahead to 2026, NEAR is planning to embed more AI into their platform and build out their privacy features – we’ve already seen some of this in the form of their NEAR AI Cloud and Private Chat initiatives, which use hardware-backed encryption to let users keep control over their data. The NEAR Foundation is also messing around with a new governance model, often called a “House of Stake”, which pairs community voting with AI to make more nuanced decisions about the protocol.
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