NEAR Protocol Token Surges 23% on Zcash Swap Traffic

NEAR, the token of the NEAR Protocol blockchain, surged about 23% on Monday to trade just above $4, making it the standout performer among major cryptocurrencies while bitcoin held above $81,000, CoinDesk reported.

The rally traces back to NEAR Intents, a swap service built on NEAR Protocol that lets a wallet trade one token for another across different chains without the user having to move funds between them first. Instead of bridging assets manually and paying fees on each step, the service routes the order across networks behind the scenes and settles it in one place.

That settlement layer is what connects the usage to the token. Every swap routed through NEAR Intents settles on the NEAR network, so a spike in wallet traffic can translate into demand for the chain and its native asset. When new wallet integrations go live, that demand can ramp up fast.

Major consumer wallets have now plugged into it to offer Zcash swaps. ZODL and Vizor integrated NEAR Intents so their users can swap Zcash directly inside the wallet, removing the manual bridging steps that used to put off casual users. Daily ZEC volume routed through the service jumped roughly sixfold over the past week, according to CoinDesk data.

Privacy coin interest is rising again

The traffic spike lines up with renewed interest in Zcash, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency. ZEC itself gained about 3% on Monday to trade above $1,500, CoinDesk reported. Mid-cap tokens like NEAR often post sharp single-day gains when on-chain activity jumps, particularly when that activity touches assets with growing interest around privacy or cross-chain use.

NEAR Protocol has become the routing layer for one of the most heavily traded tokens on the market this week, and its own token has followed the traffic. Whether those flows hold through the week will say a lot about whether this is a one-off burst of swap demand or something more durable. If volume settles back, the price move could fade just as quickly as it arrived. Privacy coins have drawn waves of speculative interest before, often tied to broader market rotation rather than any single product launch, so traders will be watching whether the swap traffic sticks around.

Bitcoin holds above $81,000 as ETF flows recover

Bitcoin traded just above $81,000 in Asian morning hours, up less than 1% over 24 hours, according to CoinDesk. The move extends gains made since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cleared a path for onchain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks last week. Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at crypto exchange BTSE, put the weekend spike down to that clearance and the short squeeze that followed.

Spot bitcoin ETFs finished the week of Sept. 14 to Sept. 18 with $6.21 million in net inflows, CoinCentral reported, citing data from Wu Blockchain. The weekly total was rescued by $433 million of inflows on Friday, the strongest daily result since Sept. 3, with Fidelity's fund accounting for $310.7 million and BlackRock's IBIT adding $108.4 million. Spot ether ETFs moved in the opposite direction, posting about $140 million in weekly outflows and ending four straight weeks of inflows that had brought in a combined $1.94 billion.

Elsewhere, BNB rose about 2% to nearly $777, while ether and Hyperliquid's HYPE each picked up about 2%. XRP, dogecoin, Solana and Tron recorded smaller gains of around 1% or less. Equities helped set the tone through the Asian session: MSCI's Asia Pacific gauge climbed nearly 1% on progress in trade talks between Washington and Beijing ahead of this week's meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Brent crude fell 2% to just above $101 a barrel, easing some inflation pressure.

The calendar gives traders plenty to watch from here. Flash PMIs land Wednesday, the Trump-Xi meeting is set for Thursday, and U.S. August PCE inflation prints on Friday. Token supply events dot the week too: Canton unlocks about $17.17 million worth of CC tokens on Monday, followed by a $51.2 million TON unlock Tuesday and a $20.8 million unlock of Humanity's H on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. Attention also turns to speeches from Federal Reserve officials ahead of the central bank's late-October meeting, and to whether the NEAR Protocol token's gains can hold if ZEC swap volumes cool off.