NEAR Protocol and Bittensor posted sharp gains as capital rotated back into decentralized AI infrastructure, with NEAR rising 11.52% and Bittensor’s TAO climbing 26.35%. The moves followed a mix of network-specific catalysts, incentive updates and renewed market interest in AI-linked crypto assets.
For NEAR, the rally coincided with the scheduled deployment of Dynamic Resharding v2.13, an upgrade designed to automatically split shards as network demand grows. The protocol also activated its “[email protected]” incentive program, with the first drop live for users of Confidential Intents after the network reached a $70 million TVL milestone.
NEAR Rally Builds Around Upgrade and Incentive Cycle
Dynamic Resharding is central to NEAR’s current market narrative because it targets scalability at the infrastructure level. By enabling automatic shard splitting, the upgrade is meant to help the network adjust capacity as activity increases, rather than relying on static throughput assumptions.
The protocol’s incentive strategy is adding a second layer to the move. NEAR has reported approximately $34.24 million in cumulative revenue, with an annualized fee run rate near $34.23 million, while directing 100% of revenue toward NEAR token buybacks.
Institutional visibility also remains part of the setup. Grayscale recently amended its NEAR ETF S-1 filing on June 12, signaling continued pursuit of a regulated investment product tied to the asset.
NEAR’s broader upgrade cycle includes post-quantum signing, a security-focused addition aimed at strengthening the network against future cryptographic risks. The network has also gained attention from the integration of USDC on the NEAR AI Agent Market, which supports private stablecoin payments for autonomous tasks across multiple chains.
TAO Leads AI Token Rally on Decentralized Compute Demand
Bittensor’s TAO outperformed with a 26.35% surge, making it one of the strongest movers in the broader altcoin market. The rally was fueled by growing attention on decentralized compute, data marketplaces and AI agent infrastructure.
The move followed renewed focus on censorship-resistant AI systems after a June 12 U.S. government directive affected access to certain centralized AI models. Trackers highlighted a 13.4% TAO rally shortly after that event, helping reinforce the market’s rotation into decentralized alternatives.
Bittensor’s momentum is also tied to its expanding subnet ecosystem, where decentralized machine learning contributors compete and coordinate across specialized networks. Its evolving EVM integration has further strengthened the argument that TAO is moving beyond a pure AI narrative into broader crypto infrastructure.
The relative strength in NEAR and TAO shows that traders are not treating all AI tokens equally. Market attention is concentrating on projects with active infrastructure, agent-related use cases and identifiable network catalysts.
Still, the rally remains early in confirmation terms. Broader participation data is not yet fully established, and traders are watching whether TAO can hold the $300 area and whether NEAR’s “[email protected]” incentive target can support a more durable trend.