NEAR Protocol DeFi soars 150% – What’s next for its price?

• NEAR Protocol recorded strong DeFi growth last year. 
• NEAR price bounced off the strong support at $3 — Will the recovery extend? 

NEAR Protocol’s [NEAR] network growth surged 156% last year, boosted by broader bullish market sentiment post-U.S. elections in November.

At the end of Q3 2024, per Messari’s report, the chain’s DeFi TVL (total locked value) was below $100M but jumped to $240M by last quarter, underscoring increased investor interest and confidence. 

However, DeFi TVL slowed slightly in the last quarter. Similarly, NEAR showed mixed price performance over the same period.

For example, in the first half of 2024, NEAR price jumped 160%. However, like the rest of the market, it tanked last summer and only bounced back post-U.S. elections, with a 72% gain. 

But the December sell-off erased all the post-U.S. elections gains and dragged NEAR to 2024 lows of $3 after a 60% dump. What can speculators expect in Q1 2025? 

NEAR: What’s next for Q1 2025?

As an AI-centric chain, part of the early 2025 NEAR losses could be attributed to the burst of the AI bubble. This happened after the debut of OpenAI’s competitor and relatively low-cost Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek. 

Like most chains, NEAR’s price strongly correlated to daily active addresses and DEX volume. During the past rallies, the two metrics spiked but dropped during drawdowns. 

In particular, the NEAR’s price drop from $8 to $3 was marked by a steady decline in daily active addresses and DEX volumes. 

As of this writing, the two metrics were yet to show a decisive recovery and could keep NEAR muted, especially if macro uncertainty persists. 

Note, however, that the weekly timeframe chart showed that NEAR made a likely bottom around $3.

Interestingly, NEAR rebounded at this level in March, August, and November 2024. If the trend repeats, NEAR’s immediate recovery target could be $4.7 or $5.

However, a crack below the support could push the altcoin to $2.