Will NEAR’s Q1 performance bring its holders closer to profits? Analyzing…

• Near’s Q1 performance indicated that the protocol has seen a surge in activity.
• The protocol was still lagging behind in the DeFi sector as DEX volumes fell.

The optimistic run of the crypto market in Q1 has resulted in positive developments for the Near Protocol [NEAR]. According to Messari’s 10 April tweet, the protocol has been making strides in various areas.

.@NickDGarcia's State of @NEARProtocol Q1 23' report ⬇️

+Active accounts remained high driven by @SweatEconomy,@auroraisnear, @spin_fi, & @NEARCrowd
+Liquid staking protocols up 98% QoQ
+NEAR Foundation introduced Blockchain Operating System

FREE report ?? pic.twitter.com/M6GHY8l83a

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) April 9, 2023

Read Near Protocol’s [NEAR] Price Prediction 2023-2024

During the first quarter of 2023, the protocol continued to maintain its high level of daily active accounts, which had reached a record high in the previous quarter. The network had an average of 64,000 daily active accounts in Q1, with Sweat Economy, Aurora, Spin.fi, and NEAR Crowd being the major contributors to its activity.

However, the creation of new accounts slowed down in contrast to the surge during Q3 and Q4 of 2023 that coincided with the launch of Sweat Economy.

NEAR also processed an average of 393,000 daily transactions during Q1 2023, a 13% decline from the previous quarter. Nonetheless, transaction fees remained low, which can be attributed to the protocol’s fee adjustment mechanism.

Source: Messari

Some challenges lay ahead for Near

However, despite the surge in activity, the protocol faced challenges in the DeFi sector.

NEAR experienced a 32% decrease in its TVL from the previous quarter, dropping to $97 million. This decrease was mainly attributed to the removal of liquidity and the closure of DeFi positions by a wallet linked with Alameda. The reduction happened towards the end of the quarter, and the protocol has, since then, eliminated its Alameda DeFi exposure.

Another factor that impacted Near was its declining DEX volume, which fell from $49.1 million to $654,540 over the last few months. Near’s competitors, such as Solana [SOL] and Avalanche [AVAX] have surpassed the protocol in this aspect.

Source: Artemis

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Even though the protocol performed relatively well barring a few setbacks, the same couldn’t be said about the NEAR token. The price of the Near token fell considerably over the last few months. During this period, the volume of the NEAR token also fell from 500 million to 55.65 million.

Near’s development activity decreased during this period as well, indicating that work on new developments and upgrades has slowed down.

Source: Santiment