NEAR Protocol price prediction for 2040: Can AI infrastructure push NEAR to $50?

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NEAR price prediction 2040

Highlights

NEAR currently trades near $0.96, down roughly 88% from its all-time high above $8 reached in 2024.
Long-term forecasts for 2040 range from $30 to $60 if AI-agent infrastructure becomes standard across blockchains.
NEAR benefits from a $120 million OceanPal treasury accumulation targeting 10% supply, a Grayscale ETF filing, and inflation cut to 2.5%.

Presently, NEAR is trading around $0.96, positioned as an AI-focused Layer 1 despite brutal price weakness. Over the past year, NEAR has dropped approximately 88%, mirroring broader altcoin corrections.

The price ranged from lows near $0.90 to highs above $3.20 during this period. Despite the decline, on-chain data from Nansen showed NEAR among the five busiest blockchains of 2025 in total transactions. The protocol proved one million transactions per second in testing and scaled mainnet from six to nine shards, raising throughput by 50%.

Technical structure shows an extended downtrend

The daily chart reveals NEAR in a sustained downtrend with the Supertrend indicator at $1.27, confirming bearish momentum. The parabolic SAR at $1.05 suggests minimal support above current levels, with a breakdown potentially accelerating losses toward $0.80.

NEAR Protocol price dynamics (Source: TradingView)

Price action has formed consecutive lower highs since late 2024, failing to hold any meaningful resistance. Volume remains weak during bounces, indicating a lack of buying conviction. NEAR needs to reclaim the $2-$2.3 zone to shift technical sentiment and signal potential reversal.

NEAR's 2040 outlook depends on AI agents

Looking ahead to 2040, NEAR's case hinges on whether AI agents become the primary blockchain interface. If user-owned AI becomes standard and NEAR captures significant infrastructure market share, the token could realistically trade between $30 and $60 by 2040.

These projections assume successful deployment of AI Cloud products, continued corporate treasury accumulation, and validation that sharded architecture offers advantages for AI workloads.

NEAR completed its inflation halving in October 2025, cutting annual issuance from 5% to 2.5% permanently. Nasdaq-listed OceanPal launched SovereignAI with a $120 million investment targeting 10% of total NEAR supply, already accumulating 53.9 million tokens.

Grayscale filed to convert its NEAR Trust into an ETF, potentially unlocking institutional capital. Co-founder Illia Polosukhin co-authored the “Attention Is All You Need” paper that birthed modern AI, lending technical credibility. However, competition from Solana, Ethereum, and Bittensor remains fierce, and AI-blockchain narratives haven't yet sustained price appreciation.

What investors should monitor

NEAR remains sensitive to AI narrative shifts and Layer 1 competition dynamics. Transaction volume and shard utilization provide adoption signals. Investors should track OceanPal's token accumulation pace and Grayscale's ETF approval timeline.

AI Cloud product integration with partners like Brave and NVIDIA offers real-world validation. The $2 resistance level is critical for any technical reversal.

Analyst Anton Kharitonov stated:

“NEAR's AI-agent infrastructure thesis is compelling with proven scalability and corporate backing, but the market needs evidence that AI workloads actually migrate on-chain before pricing in 2040 upside.”

On-chain metrics like active developer count and AI application deployment offer protocol health insights. By 2040, NEAR's valuation will reflect whether AI agents became blockchain's killer app or remained speculative.

Recently we discussed that NEAR launched AI Cloud and Private Chat products integrated into Brave Nightly and OpenMind AGI, reaching over 100 million users with confidential AI processing capabilities.

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