NEAR Protocol Q4 2025 Performance and AI Integration

NEAR Protocol experienced a transformative fourth quarter in 2025, marked by significant technical milestones and a strategic pivot toward becoming a foundation for the agentic economy [1]. The platform successfully demonstrated a publicly verifiable benchmark of one million transactions per second (TPS) using actual code on consumer hardware [1].

Key takeaways

• NEAR Protocol achieved a 1 million TPS benchmark across 70 shards during the fourth quarter of 2025 [1].
• The platform’s cross-chain execution layer, NEAR Intents, surpassed $7 billion in cumulative volume [1].
• Annual inflation for the NEAR token was reduced from 5% to 2.5% following the Halving Upgrade [1].
• Institutional interest in the ecosystem grew, supported by a $120 million investment from OceanPal Inc. for AI initiatives [1].
• The network engaged 20 million users throughout the quarter, with the HOT Wallet accounting for over half of all transaction activity [1].

Scaling Infrastructure and AI Capabilities

The network’s technical evolution in late 2025 included the expansion to nine shards with full dynamic resharding capabilities and the launch of sharded smart contracts [1]. These upgrades, combined with a validator set that grew to 500 nodes, were designed to enhance the platform's scalability and decentralization [1]. Beyond raw throughput, NEAR introduced the NEAR AI Cloud, which provides hardware-enforced confidential inference backed by cryptographic proofs, a feature intended to support sensitive autonomous agent operations [1].

The platform’s growth is also tied to the maturation of NEAR Intents, a solver-based architecture that allows users to specify desired outcomes for cross-chain execution [1]. This framework has integrated with exchanges such as CoW Swap and ThorSwap, facilitating over 13 million swaps involving more than 125 assets [1]. Additionally, the project has focused on developer resources, including new SDKs and social login features, to lower barriers for building decentralized applications [1].

Why it matters

NEAR Protocol is increasingly positioned as a vertically integrated service provider for AI-driven commerce and decentralized finance [1]. By bridging scalable blockchain infrastructure with AI-powered tools, the project aims to support developers building applications that interact with automated agents [3]. Looking ahead to 2026, the roadmap includes the release of IronClaw for confidential agents, enhanced private intents, and a unified super-app designed to span over 35 different chains [1]. As the ecosystem matures, it continues to attract institutional attention, with various trusts and ETPs listed by firms such as Grayscale and Bitwise [1].