Wall Street’s Wild Ride: NEAR ETF Joins the Circus!

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Ah, the grand spectacle of Wall Street! Where the suits and ties waltz with the blockchain, and the only thing more unpredictable than the market is the weather in Roald Dahl’s Chocolate Factory. Yes, my dear readers, the push to give those stuffy financiers direct access to Layer-1 blockchains is growing-faster than the BFG’s ears after a good story.

After a year of major ETF filings tied to Solana [SOL] and Ripple [XRP], Grayscale Investments has decided to join the party, turning its beady little eyes to NEAR Protocol [NEAR]. Oh, what a delightful twist! In a Form S-1 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 20th of January, Grayscale announced plans to convert its existing Near Trust into a spot ETF. Fancy that! From a developer’s darling to the institutional spotlight-NEAR is growing up, whether it likes it or not.

The Nitty-Gritty of Grayscale’s Near Trust ETF

According to the filing, Grayscale plans to hoist the Grayscale Near Trust (GSNR) from the dusty shelves of the OTCQB over-the-counter market and plonk it onto the NYSE Arca exchange. Oh, the glamour! The firm is sticking to its tried-and-true strategy: private placements for the posh lot, then public trading, and finally, the grand finale-full spot ETF approval. Ta-da!

Once this magical transformation is complete, investors will get to dabble in NEAR, the native token of the Near Protocol, through their regular brokerage accounts. No more fussing with wallets or private trusts. How convenient! And let’s not forget the institutional partners lending their weight to this endeavor. Coinbase Custody Trust Company will play nanny to the NEAR tokens, while BNY Mellon will handle the admin and transfer services. A regular tea party, isn’t it?

The Cherry on Top: Staking!

Now, here’s the juicy bit. The filing also mentions staking as a key feature of this ETF. Unlike those boring Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs, this one plans to stake NEAR tokens on the network. Oh, the audacity! This could mean staking rewards for the fund, which might (just might) be shared with investors, pending regulatory approval. Cross your fingers, folks-and your toes, while you’re at it.

All this excitement comes as NEAR’s price takes a little nap. At press time, the token was snoozing around $1.53, down 1.84% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. But fear not! This dip is just a hiccup, tied to the broader market’s tantrum, thanks to President Trump’s tariff shenanigans involving Greenland and a few European countries. Oh, the drama!

Altcoin ETFs: A Circus of Capital

Meanwhile, the altcoin ETF market is a right old circus. Data from SoSoValue shows institutional flows doing the cha-cha. Solana and Chainlink [LINK] saw modest inflows of $3.08 million and $4.05 million, respectively. But Ethereum [ETH]? Oh dear, it suffered outflows of nearly $230 million, followed by XRP at $53.32 million and a few smaller exits from Dogecoin [DOGE]. It seems investors are playing musical chairs with their capital rather than fleeing the crypto big top.

And let’s not forget, NEAR isn’t the only acrobat in this circus. The Bitwise Chainlink ETF also made its debut on NYSE Arca on the 14th of January. What a show! The fast-growing ETF space suggests that 2026 won’t crown a single winner. Instead, it’ll be a grand ensemble of institutional-grade altcoins, each vying for the spotlight.

Final Musings

  • Grayscale’s move is like handing a golden ticket to traditional investors, letting them nibble on NEAR without the hassle of wallets or private trusts.
  • For NEAR, this filing is just the opening act. The real performance lies in execution-so break a leg, NEAR!

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2026-01-21 18:15