NEAR Protocol (NEAR) showed notable strength on Friday, jumping 34% in a single day to around $2.32 as AI-focused tokens lead a broader rally tied to NEAR’s upcoming network upgrades and Nvidia’s bullish revenue outlook. The token is about 50% higher than seven days ago and roughly 115% up over the last 90 days, with trading volume briefly exceeding $1 billion in the session.

The move comes as NEAR unveiled a slate of upgrades aimed at AI integration, privacy enhancements and scalable performance—steps investors see as signaling deeper utility for developers and users within the NEAR ecosystem. In tandem, Aurora, the Ethereum-compatible layer built on NEAR, pushed an update to its Aurora Intents Widget, integrating ADI Chain as a new entry point to streamline cross-chain swaps, deposits and application flows for users.

Key takeaways

• NEAR surged about 50% over the past week, reaching six-month price highs near $2.34.
• Upgrades centered on privacy, AI integration and scaling boosted investor confidence and helped push NEAR’s 24-hour trading volume above $1 billion.
• A breakout from a multi-year wedge pattern sets a target near $5.75 if NEAR can clear resistance in the $2.60–$3.00 zone.
• AI-oriented tokens were broadly supported by market momentum, with Nvidia’s AI leadership and upbeat earnings outlook underpinning the sector’s strength.

NEAR price rallies amid upgrade program

Data from market observers show NEAR’s rebound accelerating earlier in the week, with the price climbing from a low near $1.48 to a peak around $2.34 on Friday—a gain of roughly 58% from that trough. The surge was accompanied by a surge in liquidity, with daily volume jumping to about $1.15 billion, reflecting intensified buying pressure and broad interest in the ecosystem.

The move also triggered notable short liquidations as traders positioned for a break above key levels, with liquidations surpassing $9.85 million when NEAR rallied through the $2.30 region. The upward move aligns with NEAR’s ongoing upgrade path, which places renewed emphasis on privacy protections, AI integration and scalable throughput—the kinds of enhancements investors have cited as catalysts for asset demand within the NEAR network.

At the same time, Aurora announced enhancements to its cross-chain experiences. The Intents Widget update adds ADI Chain as a new entry point, designed to enable smoother cross-chain swaps, deposit flows and application orchestration for users moving assets or building on NEAR’s platform.

AI tokens riding the broader momentum

The NEAR ascent is part of a wider revival in AI-themed crypto assets. Tokens such as Grass (GRASS), OpenServe (SERVE) and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) registered meaningful intraday gains—up more than 27%, 21% and 11%, respectively—mirroring the sector-wide enthusiasm for AI-enabled ecosystems. Collectively, the market capitalization of AI and big-data crypto projects rose about 8% over the past 24 hours to roughly $21.44 billion, signaling renewed investor interest in AI-native narratives alongside traditional market drivers.

That sector-wide bounce sits against a backdrop of Nvidia’s continued dominance in the AI accelerator market. Industry observers note Nvidia’s control of a substantial share—roughly 81–90% in this space—and the company’s ongoing earnings narrative. In its latest results, Nvidia reported robust Q1 2026 profits and projected a revenue opportunity reaching $1 trillion through 2027, reinforcing the viability of compute-heavy AI ecosystems that rely on NEAR’s growing AI-oriented capabilities and developer-friendly environment.

Historically, Nvidia-driven events have tended to coincide with upside for NEAR. Notably, a rally in February followed Nvidia’s earnings release, when NEAR surged more than 50% in a short span. The current sequence echoes that pattern: a favorable Nvidia backdrop combined with NEAR’s technical breakout and upgrade-driven catalysts contributing to broader upward momentum for the token.

What could drive NEAR higher from here?

From a technical standpoint, NEAR has just emerged from a multi-year falling wedge pattern. The immediate hurdle sits in the $2.60–$3.00 area, a zone that includes several moving averages on the weekly chart. A clean break above this resistance would open a measured ascent toward the wedge’s implied target near $5.75, which would be roughly 160% above the current price. The relative strength index has moved into the mid-60s, signaling building upside momentum but not yet extreme overbought pressure.

Market observers like Michael van de Poppe have highlighted NEAR as exhibiting one of the market’s more bullish charts, noting that as long as the $1.40 level remains a floor, the path toward higher resistance levels remains plausible. The consensus among analysts cited in market commentary is that a sustained hold above the $2 level could cement the larger-term breakout, while a failure to clear the $2.60–$3 band could reintroduce consolidation risks.

investors should watch not only the price action but the ecosystem’s ongoing upgrade cadence. If privacy, AI integration and cross-chain usability continue to advance without major delays, NEAR could see sustained demand for block space and services, translating into higher activity, bookings and a longer-term re-rating of the token’s utility value.

Looking ahead, traders will want to see whether NEAR can sustain momentum through upcoming supply zones and whether the broader AI-narrative continues to attract capital into both NEAR and related ecosystems such as Aurora. The next crucial inflection will likely hinge on whether buyers can decisively clear the $2.60–$3.00 resistance corridor and maintain a constructive weekly trend that validates the breakout thesis.

What remains uncertain is how macro market dynamics, regulatory developments and the pace of AI-adoption across chains will interact with NEAR’s upgrade trajectory. Nonetheless, current data points and the Nvidia backdrop suggest the headline driver remains the confluence of technical breakouts, upgrade-driven utility, and a widening AI-focused investment appetite that could keep NEAR and its peers in the spotlight in the near term.

Readers should monitor NEAR’s price not in isolation but in the context of ecosystem progress, including cross-chain flow efficiency, privacy-improvement milestones and the broader risk-on sentiment that has re-emerged in crypto markets as AI narratives re-accelerate.

Ripple joined a $6M funding round for cross-chain infrastructure platform Squid.

Cross-chain platform Squid raised $6 million in strategic funding to build new consumer-facing products that simplify how users move assets across blockchains. North Island Ventures led the round, with Ripple, Dialectic, Borderless, Scenius Capital, Altos, and Arche Capital also participating.

Angel investors including Axelar co-founder Georgios Vlachos, Enso Finance founder Connor Howe, and Constructive founder Dan Lynch joined as well. Squid’s pseudonymous co-founder Fig declined to disclose the valuation or round structure.

What Squid does and why Ripple invested

“The vision is to make directly accessing whatever you need in crypto as simple as the cross-chain swaps Squid already handles today,” Fig told The Block.

Squid’s application allows users to move assets across fundamentally different blockchain ecosystems, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, and the XRP Ledger, in a single transaction. Squid serves as the official bridge partner for the XRP Ledger and operates a validator on the network, making Ripple’s investment a natural extension of an existing relationship.

Since launching in January 2023, Squid has processed over $6 billion in volume through more than 4 million transactions across over one million users. Its execution layer, Squid Intents, uses market makers to fill cross-chain transactions and settles them through trusted execution environments rather than requiring smart contract deployments on every chain. That architecture lets the platform support more than 100 networks.

The round brings Squid’s total funding to $13.5 million, following a $3.5 million seed round in 2023 and a $4 million strategic round in 2024. The team currently has around 20 people and is not hiring.

Ripple’s participation fits a broader pattern of infrastructure investments around the XRP Ledger. As crypto.news reported, JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ripple recently tested tokenized Treasury settlement on XRPL. Separately, the XRP Alliance launched earlier this month to build yield products for XRP holders.

Squid expects to share more about its consumer roadmap in the coming months.

The International Holding Company (IHC) executed a 110 million dirham ($30 million) transaction using the DDSC stablecoin on ADI Chain. The company described the transfer as one of the largest disclosed stablecoin transactions executed in the United Arab Emirates.

The transaction follows recent approval from the UAE central bank for the dirham-backed stablecoin ecosystem launched by IHC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Sirius International Holding.

DDSC operates on ADI Chain, a layer-2 blockchain developed by ADI Foundation. According to the announcement, the system is designed for institutional use cases including cross-border payments, treasury operations and trade settlement.

The IHC said the transaction was intended to demonstrate that DDSC and ADI Chain can support institutional-scale financial activity, with future plans focused on payment corridors linking the Middle East with global markets.

First Abu Dhabi Bank is the largest bank in the UAE by assets, while IHC is one of the country’s largest listed investment companies.

The announcement comes as UAE financial institutions and digital asset companies expand regulated stablecoin infrastructure. In January, Universal Digital launched USDU, which it described as the first US dollar-backed stablecoin registered by the Central Bank of the UAE under the country’s Payment Token Services Regulation framework.

Related: Trump denies knowledge of Abu Dhabi royal’s $500M stake in WLFI

Crypto companies expand regulated UAE operations

The UAE has continued attracting global crypto exchanges and financial institutions seeking regulated access to the regional market as the country expands licensed digital asset services tied to payments, custody and institutional trading.

Earlier this month, Crypto.com received a Stored Value Facilities license from the central bank allowing residents to pay Dubai government fees using cryptocurrencies through the company’s platform. The approval allows the company to support payments under Dubai’s broader cashless government payments strategy.

Crypto.com secures SVF license. Source: Crypto.com

Meanwhile, BNY partnered with Finstreet and ADI Foundation in May to develop institutional digital asset custody services in Abu Dhabi, with initial support for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) and plans to later expand into stablecoins and tokenized assets.

On Thursday, Kraken said it received preliminary approval from Dubai’s VARA regulator as part of its planned expansion in the UAE. The company said the approval would support UAE dirham funding, margin and over-the-counter trading, along with institutional services through Kraken Prime.

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• OKX and ICE have partnered to launch perpetual oil futures based on Brent and WTI benchmarks.
• The new contracts will allow continuous trading without expiration or physical delivery of oil.
• OKX plans to offer the products to its 120 million users in licensed jurisdictions.
• ICE will supply pricing data to support accurate and trusted oil market benchmarks.
• The initiative builds on a broader partnership focused on blockchain and tokenized trading systems.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) and OKX announced a partnership to launch perpetual oil futures contracts. The products will use ICE’s Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks. OKX said the offering will expand access to energy markets for its 120 million users.

The new contracts will not expire, allowing continuous trading without physical delivery. Both firms said the move connects traditional commodity markets with crypto-based trading systems. The rollout will target regions where OKX already offers regulated perpetual futures.

OKX to Expand Perpetual Futures With ICE Oil Benchmarks

ICE will provide pricing data for Brent crude and WTI to support the new contracts. These benchmarks are widely used in global oil markets.

Trabue Bland, senior vice president at ICE, said the products will broaden access to energy benchmarks. He stated the contracts will reach OKX’s large retail trading base.

OKX confirmed the contracts will be available only in licensed jurisdictions. The exchange said compliance remains a key requirement for the rollout.

Haider Rafique, global managing partner at OKX, said oil markets are critical to the global economy. He added that integrating ICE benchmarks meets demand from market participants.

Perpetual futures allow traders to speculate on price movements without expiry dates. Traders do not need to handle physical oil or renew contracts.

Crypto and Traditional Finance Converge in OKX Deal

ICE and OKX signed a prior agreement in March to develop blockchain-based trading systems. The partnership includes tokenized securities and crypto-linked futures products.

ICE also made a strategic investment in OKX, valuing the company at $25 billion. The firms aim to expand access between traditional finance and crypto platforms.

The move follows growing interest in perpetual futures tied to commodities. Hyperliquid recently reported $1.6 billion in daily trading volume for similar oil contracts.

Open interest in Hyperliquid’s oil products exceeded $1.3 billion, showing strong demand. These contracts also operate without expiration dates.

Regulators in the United States have started reviewing perpetual futures markets. Michael Selig, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said oversight will increase.

Most perpetual futures currently trade on offshore crypto exchanges. These platforms often operate under different rules than traditional exchanges like ICE and CME Group.

ICE and OKX said the new oil contracts will follow regulatory frameworks in approved markets. The companies confirmed availability will depend on local licensing conditions.

The announcement marks the latest collaboration between crypto and traditional finance firms. Both companies continue developing infrastructure linking blockchain and established markets.

The firms did not disclose a specific launch date for the contracts. They confirmed deployment will begin in regions where OKX already offers perpetual futures.

Kalshi and Polymarket lost bids to block gambling cases in Nevada and Washington.

A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel denied emergency motions from both Kalshi and Polymarket to block lower court rulings, sending gambling enforcement cases in Nevada and Washington back to state courts. The orders came down on Thursday.

The judges concluded that raising a defense under the Commodity Exchange Act does not create federal jurisdiction that would move the cases out of state courts. “The CEA preemption defense is an affirmative defense, which cannot by itself give rise to federal question jurisdiction,” the panel wrote.

Why this matters for prediction market regulation

The court also rejected Polymarket’s argument that it was operating under federal direction through its compliance with CFTC oversight requirements. “Polymarket’s actions merely demonstrate its own compliance with federal law, which cannot alone show that it is acting under a federal officer,” the judges stated.

Nevada’s cases center on both platforms’ lack of state gaming licenses. Washington’s lawsuit focuses on whether Kalshi offers illegal gambling products through its sports event contracts.

Key Takeaways

• Bloomberg reports Uber is considering a complete acquisition of Delivery Hero, a major European food delivery player
• Uber disclosed earlier this week it owns a 19.5% stake in Delivery Hero, with an additional 5.6% through options
• Investment bank Morgan Stanley assisted Uber in rapidly accumulating its position through derivative instruments
• Uber shares declined approximately 1.9% following the announcement; rival DoorDash climbed 1.9%
• Delivery Hero’s stock has surged almost 110% in Frankfurt during the last half-year, reaching a market capitalization of approximately €10.2 billion

According to a Friday Bloomberg report, Uber has entered preliminary discussions regarding a potential full acquisition of Delivery Hero, the Frankfurt-traded food delivery powerhouse.

The strategic initiative is designed to strengthen Uber’s competitive position against DoorDash in markets beyond American borders.

Following the report’s release, Uber’s stock price fell roughly 1.9%. Meanwhile, DoorDash—considered a primary competitor in global delivery markets—saw its shares rise 1.9% on the same information.

Uber Technologies, Inc., UBER

Just days ago, Uber revealed it had swiftly accumulated a 19.5% ownership position in Delivery Hero, complemented by options representing another 5.6%. The stake was built with assistance from Morgan Stanley, which leveraged derivative products to facilitate rapid execution.

Bloomberg’s sources indicate that Uber has been engaging in conversations with additional Delivery Hero shareholders regarding its potential acquisition interest.

Uber’s Official Position

In an official submission to German financial regulators, Uber declared it presently has no plans to increase its ownership to 30% or beyond—a key threshold that would normally require a mandatory takeover bid under European regulatory frameworks.

Nevertheless, the company acknowledged that it regularly evaluates its investment portfolio and remains open to acquiring additional shares should favorable circumstances emerge.

Uber further clarified it has no intentions to modify Delivery Hero’s capital framework or seek to influence board member selections beyond exercising standard shareholder voting privileges.

The company may still require regulatory clearance from antitrust authorities before exceeding specific ownership levels across European jurisdictions.

Delivery Hero’s Current Position

Delivery Hero’s stock has surged approximately 110% on the Frankfurt exchange during the previous six-month period, bringing its total market capitalization to around €10.2 billion.

The organization provides food and grocery delivery operations throughout numerous international markets excluding the United States, positioning it as a valuable strategic acquisition target for any platform seeking international expansion.

With support from financial advisory firms, Uber is carefully evaluating various approaches to expand its ownership stake, according to Bloomberg’s reporting.

Discussions remain in progress, though sources emphasized that no guarantee exists that negotiations will culminate in a completed transaction.