Crypto: Bitwise launches NRR, the first spot NEAR ETF in the U.S.

Bitwise is launching NRR on NYSE Arca, the first spot NEAR ETF in the United States, featuring internally managed staking with a 5.3% yield. The article Crypto: Bitwise launches NRR, the first spot NEAR ETF in the U.S. first appeared on Journal du Coin.

Asset manager Bitwise has reached a significant milestone in the U.S. financial market by introducing the first spot ETF backed by the NEAR token, listed under the ticker NRR on the NYSE Arca. This launch marks the rapid expansion of Bitwise’s institutional offerings, now providing a vehicle for direct exposure to this digital asset. Unlike traditional funds, this product stands out with an internal staking strategy: the issuer handles the staking of tokens itself to generate yields, estimated at approximately 5.3% annually, while custody is provided by Coinbase Custody.

Regarding fees, the fund carries an annual management fee of 0.75%. Although this cost is four times higher than that of the Bitcoin or Solana products offered by the same manager, it aligns with the nature of lower-capitalization assets, where liquidity and operational maintenance constraints are higher. Despite these fees, the structure appears advantageous, as the portion of rewards retained after commission deductions significantly exceeds the management cost for the end investor.

The strategic stakes behind this launch lie in the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain. The NEAR project, co-founded by Illia Polosukhin—one of the pioneers of the Transformer architecture behind ChatGPT—positions itself as a pivotal infrastructure for agentic commerce. With tools like NEAR Intents, the protocol facilitates automated and decentralized transactions. As AI agents gain the ability to autonomously execute payments and exchanges, the need for a fast, secure, and trustless settlement architecture is becoming an increasing market necessity.

This initiative reflects a paradigm shift facilitated by recent SEC listing standards, which have allowed for an increase in altcoin-related products without requiring complex, case-by-case reviews. For Bitwise, the goal is clear: to capture investor interest in a technology that, after six years of development, now processes billions of dollars in volume. This NRR fund does more than provide simple speculative exposure; it aims to offer structured access to what is perceived as the technological backbone of future economic interactions between machines.