Bitwise, a well-known crypto investment company, is trying to create a new investment product for the NEAR cryptocurrency.
On May 6, 2025, Bitwise filed official papers with the U.S. SEC (the government group that approves stock market products). This is a required step if they want to launch something called a NEAR ETF.
Before this, on April 24, they already created a trust (a legal setup) in Delaware for the ETF. This new filing is just the next step in the process.
So, What’s a NEAR ETF?
A NEAR ETF would let people invest in NEAR tokens — without needing to actually buy or store the crypto themselves. Instead, they’d buy shares of this fund just like regular stocks.
The fund will be based on the NEAR Protocol, which is a type of blockchain that helps developers build fast and easy apps.
We don’t yet know what the ETF will be called or which exchange it’ll be on. But we do know that Coinbase Custody will hold the NEAR tokens safely for the fund.
Bitwise says the goal of the ETF is:
“To give investors a simple way to track NEAR’s price, minus the costs of running the fund.”
How’s NEAR Doing Right Now?
Even with this big news, NEAR’s price didn’t go up. It actually dropped a little — down 0.8% in the last 24 hours. Right now, it’s trading around $2.30.
NEAR is the 44th biggest cryptocurrency in the world, with a total value of about $2.8 billion.
Bitwise Is Betting on More Than Just Bitcoin and Ethereum
Bitwise already has ETFs for big-name cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Now they want to offer more — including ETFs for:
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Solana (SOL)
- XRP
- Aptos (APT)
An analyst posted online:
“Bitwise is trying to make altcoins more accepted on Wall Street.”
This shows they believe smaller cryptos like NEAR have a big future too.
Will the Government Approve It?
That’s the big question. Even though Bitwise is trying hard, the SEC has been slow to approve crypto ETFs that aren’t Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Right now, the SEC is still deciding on other ETF requests, like for DOGE and XRP. Their decisions have been pushed back to June 2025.
Still, there’s reason to hope. The SEC did approve Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, and Ethereum ETFs in July 2024 — something the crypto community had been waiting for a long time.
To Sum It Up Simply:
Bitwise wants to launch a new investment product for the NEAR token. If it gets approved, people will be able to invest in NEAR through the stock market — no crypto wallet needed. But first, they’ll need the SEC to say yes. Until then, we wait.
