NEAR (NEAR) climbed nearly 12% to about $2.04 on July 3, 2026 after Bitwise filed a second amendment to its spot NEAR exchange-traded fund (ETF) registration, adding staking as a secondary objective and naming NYSE Arca as the listing venue. The filing confirms a pattern that has been building across the altcoin ETF pipeline all summer: with bitcoin wrappers bleeding assets and XRP funds the only wrappers still drawing consistent inflows, issuers are no longer competing on management fees — they are competing on staking yield.
That is the real information in an otherwise routine S-1 amendment. Fee wars defined the spot bitcoin launch cycle of 2024; the 2026 altcoin cycle is being fought over who can pass through the most on-chain reward. Morgan Stanley set a 0.14% fee on its ETH and SOL staking ETFs in June precisely because staking pass-through, not the headline expense ratio, is now the differentiator institutional allocators ask about first.
What the amended filing says
The second amendment, submitted roughly a year after Bitwise’s original registration, adds staking of the fund’s NEAR holdings as a secondary objective alongside tracking the token’s value, according to the filing details reported by crypto.news on July 3, 2026. NYSE Arca is named for listing and trading. The Bank of New York Mellon takes the cash custodian, administrator and transfer agent roles, while Coinbase Custody safeguards the fund’s digital assets — the same institutional plumbing that carried the bitcoin and ether products to market.
The amendment also expands risk disclosures around staking-related tax treatment, redemption liquidity and cryptocurrency market risk, per CoinGape. Two details remain conspicuously absent: the ticker and the management fee. Holding the fee back is consistent with the staking-first playbook — issuers want to see competitors’ pass-through terms before committing to a number.
Grayscale is running the same race
Bitwise is not filing into a vacuum. Grayscale has an amended registration statement live for its own spot NEAR product — the Grayscale NEAR Trust — on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (SEC EDGAR). Two issuers amending toward the same mid-cap asset within the same window is the classic pre-approval pattern last seen before the Solana and XRP wrappers cleared, and it lands while active crypto ETFs such as T. Rowe Price’s TOKN keep widening what the SEC is prepared to wave through.
For custodians and market-makers, a NEAR listing is incremental revenue on existing rails. BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody already service the majors; each additional single-asset wrapper amortises that infrastructure further, which is why the custody names in these filings barely change.
The market read: price reacted, flows will decide
NEAR’s 12% move to $2.04 put the token back at its 61.8% Fibonacci retracement, with resistance layered at $2.14, $2.24 and the $2.36 region below June’s high near $2.56, and support at the $1.90 breakout area, per CoinGecko pricing and the crypto.news technical read. “Clearly breaking back into an uptrend,” market analyst Michaël van de Poppe said of the chart, adding he expects the token to “hold the area of €1.70 and then proceed to €2.20-2.30” through the summer.
The sceptical case writes itself, though. A filing amendment is not an approval, an approval is not inflows — and the flow backdrop is hostile. Bitcoin ETFs surrendered $9 billion from their peak before flows flipped positive on June 23, and mid-cap altcoin wrappers launched into that tape have mostly gathered assets slowly. A NEAR product would be a bet that staking yield can do for a mid-cap what brand alone could not.
What happens next is procedural: SEC response to the amended S-1s, then ticker and fee disclosure — the tell for how aggressively Bitwise prices the staking pass-through. If Grayscale’s trust amendment advances on a similar clock, the two products likely list within weeks of each other, as the Solana pair did. Until then, the $1.90 support level is the market’s referendum on whether July 3 was a repricing or a headline pop.
This article is informational analysis only and is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can lose substantial value rapidly. Past performance and historical patterns do not guarantee future results. Do your own research and consult a regulated financial adviser before making any investment decision.
Karthik Subramanian
Karthik Subramanian is a founder, writer, and technology consultant with nine years in the crypto ecosystem. He covers token economics, L1/L2 infrastructure, DeFi protocols, wallets/custody, and the bridge between crypto and forex—broker technology, liquidity, and macro drivers. Karthik’s writing focuses on clear, practical frameworks that help professionals evaluate new products and on-chain innovation alongside FX market realities.
