Near Protocol has garnered unparalleled growth and success during the year. The native token, NEAR, has also seen phenomenal growth. The cryptocurrency had been surging during December and a new all-time high was established by the token on 26th December at a price level of $16.27. The cryptocurrency subsequently fell to market corrections after the ATH but the bearish trend was soon broken. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency stands at a price level of $15.44. The token is skirting close to the ATH but the price has turned somewhat stable with no major movements. Near Protocol is the twenty-eighth largest cryptocurrency in the market.
Near Protocol – Major developments
The cryptocurrency has undergone many developments as the year came to an end. The developments have been feeding the bullish trend of the cryptocurrency and many great things are expected from it in the coming year. Near Protocol is essentially working on improving the current technology of the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum. The offering of the network is a cloud-based computing design which solves many problems that Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have been facing like high gas fees, low transaction speed and poor interoperability.
To fulfil its stated goals, the network deploys the technology of sharding through its upgrade Nightshade. Sharding solved the problem of scalability by creating multiple parallel chains that divides the workload on a blockchain. The Nightshade update was deployed in November. Moreover, Near Protocol also integrated with the stablecoin platform and the ninth largest cryptocurrency, Terra. The network has integrated the US Dollar-pegged stablecoin UST of Terra. The integration is aimed at increasing the liquidity on the protocol through the uptake of UST. The network subsequently announced various incentive program to increase the usage of Terra. The integration of UST led to an immediate boom of NEAR token and it surged upwards.
Future trajectory
The introduction of the Simple Nightshade in November is just the first step towards a fully-sharded network. It is the phase 0. As Near Protocol approaches becoming a fully-sharded network, the activity is expected to surge upwards. The technology behind the platform is solid as it also bagged the People Choice Award for the Best Blockchain Technology during the 2021 Blockchain Fest held in Cyprus during December. The new year is expected to bring even more success for the protocol. According to the estimates of Digital Coin Price, the cryptocurrency is expected to be operating at a price level of $44 in five years’ time.
