Bitwise NEAR ETF Clears NYSE Arca and SEC Hurdles, Token Jumps 26% Before Expected September 29 Launch

Bitwise Investment Advisers cleared the last major regulatory checkpoints for its spot NEAR Protocol ETF on September 24, 2026. NYSE Arca approved the listing application, and the SEC declared the trust's registration statement effective via Form 8-A the same day, according to Crypto Briefing. That sets up a potential launch under ticker NRR around September 29, 2026, per PrimeXBT.

Bitwise intends to stake 100% of the NEAR the trust holds, generating staking rewards on top of whatever the token does in price. Under the registration statement, staking expenses equal 33% of the additional NEAR generated, meaning the trust keeps roughly 67% of staking rewards for shareholders, according to Crypto News, citing the filing language directly.

Coinbase Custody holds the actual NEAR tokens. BNY Mellon handles cash custody and administrative work, and the annual management fee is set at 0.75%, according to Crypto Briefing. The trust was organized as a Delaware statutory trust back in April 2025, meaning Bitwise spent roughly 17 months getting from paperwork to approval.

Seed capital was tiny at the outset: 8 shares at $25 each, or $200 in net assets as of July 28, 2026, per Crypto Briefing. A planned seed basket of 20,000 shares worth $500,000 is expected to fund actual operations before public trading starts, and Bitwise has also filed a 424(b)(3) prospectus, the standard paperwork issuers file once a registration statement is effective, according to PrimeXBT. Bitwise itself posted on X, "The future is near. 09/29/2026," hinting at the launch date, according to Crypto News.

Token price ripped, but so did the leverage

NEAR's token jumped roughly 20% within 24 hours of the news breaking and extended those gains to about 26% in the days since, according to Crypto Briefing and CryptoRank. FXStreet reported the token trading near $5, up 176% over the prior 30 days and 240% year-to-date, with a market cap of $6.5 billion putting it 22nd among all cryptocurrencies.

But the rally came with some warning signs. Trading volume actually dropped 33% over 24 hours even as the price climbed, according to PrimeXBT. Meanwhile futures open interest jumped nearly 15% to $1.49 billion, which PrimeXBT and Coinpedia both flagged as a sign traders are piling into leveraged bets rather than simply buying and holding the token. Crypto News, citing ambcrypto's on-chain data, reported over 760,000 NEAR sold on Binance's spot market against USDT around the same time, with the RSI slipping from 66 to 61, a sign of profit-taking near resistance at $5.

One outlet's reporting doesn't match the rest

Crypto News's coverage, sourced from ambcrypto, states the SEC "has yet to approve or disapprove" the ETF's effectiveness. That directly contradicts Crypto Briefing, TradingView, PrimeXBT, FXStreet and Coinpedia, all of which report the SEC declared the registration statement effective on September 24, 2026, tied to the Form 8-A filing. The weight of reporting and the underlying filing point to effectiveness already having been granted.

The prospectus itself is the biggest red flag

Bitwise's final prospectus lays out a base-case price target of $155 by 2030, a max case of $562, and a bear case of $1.63, according to Crypto News, which cited the SEC filing directly. The spread between the bear and bull cases spans more than 300x.

A reasonable critic would note that gap alone suggests this is not a product built for conservative retirement accounts. Staking mechanics add complexity that a plain-vanilla Bitcoin or Ether ETF doesn't carry, including potential slashing risk and lockup periods tied to validator behavior. None of the sources here detail how those risks get passed through to shareholders.

The counter to that is straightforward: Bitwise disclosed the range in its own prospectus, which is exactly what SEC disclosure rules require. Crypto Briefing notes plainly that SEC approval of a listing "is not an endorsement of the underlying asset or the security itself." The agency isn't vouching for NEAR's price, it's confirming the paperwork meets exchange-listing standards.

What's fueling the ecosystem story

Beyond the ETF, NEAR's network has real activity behind it. Near Intents, a cross-chain routing system, hit a new TVL high of $249 million and has used all its revenue since February 2026 to buy back NEAR from the open market, according to Crypto News citing DeFiLlama data. The protocol also burns 70% of base-layer gas fees. Separately, FXStreet reported NEAR/USDC went live on Hyperliquid's spot market and was added to its "strict list," near.com launched confidential-by-default perpetual futures using NEAR's Confidential Intents, and near.com partnered with Ondo Finance to let users buy and hold tokenized US stocks and ETFs.

None of that changes the fact that NRR, if it launches as expected around September 29, will be the first US spot ETF built around staking rewards for an altcoin with a market cap under $10 billion. Whether Bitwise files the remaining CERT paperwork on schedule and whether NEAR holds above $5 once the initial hype fades will become clear heading into the launch window.