The Near token has declined for two consecutive days due to the recent mainnet launch of Nightshade 2.0 and traders positioning for Nvidia’s upcoming earnings.
Near (NEAR) fell to $4.83, down from last week’s high of $5.22. It remains slightly above the 50-day moving average and 57% above its monthly low.
Inflows into the DeFi sector are increasing
A closer look at Near’s ecosystem reveals that most of the dApps in its decentralized finance ecosystem have seen strong inflows in recent weeks.
Burrow, a lending marketplace similar to AAVE (AAVE), saw inflows increase 23% over the past seven days, reaching $160 million.
Similarly, flows to liquid staking applications like Linear Protocol, Meta Pool, Here Wallet, and AllStake have increased by over 25% over the same period.
Overall, the total value locked (TVL) in Near Protocol climbed to over $654 million, its highest level since July. In NEAR terms, TVL jumped to $47.6 million.
This rebound is likely due to the recent launch of the Nightshade 2.0 upgrade, which introduced stateless validation and improved scalability through advanced sharding.
Sharding is a process that breaks blocks into smaller pieces, increasing the throughput of a network. It should also localize congestion, so that gas price increases don’t affect the entire network. Developers aim to position Near as the preferred blockchain for launching decentralized applications.
Nvidia results ahead
The Near token is also in the spotlight as traders await Nvidia’s earnings results, scheduled for August 28. The results are significant as Nvidia has become the leading AI company, pushing its market cap to over $3 trillion.
The financial results report will provide a more detailed look at the growth of the AI industry. In its latest financial results, Nvidia’s revenue jumped more than 240% to $26 billion, surpassing its full-year 2021 profit.
Analysts expect Nvidia’s quarterly revenue to exceed $28.7 billion, more than the $26.9 billion it made in 2022.
Near Protocol has positioned itself as a premier blockchain for AI developers by offering agent frameworks, payments, computational tools, and decentralized storage solutions. It has been adopted by companies like Ringfence, Masa, and Cosmose AI.
With a market cap of $5.3 billion, Near is the largest AI-driven blockchain, according to CoinGecko.
Near token is still in a downtrend
The daily chart shows that the Near token is still in a downtrend even after rising more than 57% from its August low. It remains below the upper side of the descending channel that connects the biggest swings since May 26.
Near has also formed a series of lower lows and lower highs, meaning there is a risk that it will resume its downtrend and retest the support at $4. A bullish breakout will be confirmed if Near breaks above the descending trendline.
