NEAR Historical Price and Returns Analysis: Should I Buy NEAR Now?

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive review of NEAR Protocol’s historical price movements and market fluctuations since its inception, analyzing data across bull and bear market cycles. It evaluates the potential returns for investors purchasing 10 NEAR tokens and addresses the critical question: “Should I buy NEAR now?” to help both newcomers and long-term investors identify optimal entry points and growth opportunities.

Early Market Cycle and Price History: 2020 to 2021

NEAR Protocol is a highly scalable base layer protocol designed to enable DApps to run quickly on mobile devices. It allows developers to build blockchain DApps that run natively on users’ devices while providing developers with critical information about their applications. Through state sharding, NEAR achieves linear scalability with the number of nodes in the network, targeting 100k TPS based on 1 million mobile nodes. NEAR tokens are used to pay validators who provide scarce computational and storage resources to the network.

According to available market data, NEAR’s early trading history shows significant volatility:

2020

• Opening Price: $100.00
• Closing Price: $1.48
• Highest Price: $100.00
• Lowest Price: $0.631
• Annual Return: -98.52%

2021

• Opening Price: $1.73
• Closing Price: $14.39
• Highest Price: $16.24
• Lowest Price: $1.73
• Annual Return: +731.06%

An investor who purchased 10 NEAR tokens during the 2020 market bottom and held through the 2021 bull run experienced substantial gains before subsequent market corrections.

Bear Market Adjustment and Mid-Cycle Analysis: 2022 to 2023

Following the explosive growth of 2021, NEAR experienced significant corrections as broader cryptocurrency markets entered a bear phase:

2022

• Opening Price: $13.52
• Closing Price: $1.28
• Highest Price: $20.14
• Lowest Price: $1.28
• Annual Return: -90.57%

2023

• Opening Price: $1.65
• Closing Price: $3.65
• Highest Price: $3.80
• Lowest Price: $1.03
• Annual Return: +121.55%

Potential returns for an investor purchasing 10 NEAR tokens during these periods:

• 2022: -123.20 (if purchased at yearly open)
• 2023: -4.44 (if purchased at 2020 inception and held to 2023)

Recent Market Cycle: Should I Buy NEAR Now? (2024 to 2026)

In recent years, NEAR has demonstrated mixed performance with periods of recovery followed by renewed pressure:

2024

• Opening Price: $3.21
• Closing Price: $5.90
• Highest Price: $8.25
• Lowest Price: $2.75
• Annual Return: +83.61%

2025

• Opening Price: $4.97
• Closing Price: $1.73
• Highest Price: $4.98
• Lowest Price: $1.51
• Annual Return: -65.20%

2026 (to date)

• Opening Price: $1.70
• Closing Price: $1.20
• Highest Price: $1.70
• Lowest Price: $1.17
• Annual Return: -29.39%

Potential returns for investors purchasing 10 NEAR tokens during recent periods:

• 2024: -20.13
• 2025: -37.69
• 2026 to date: -5.00

Summary: Bull Markets, Bear Markets, and Investment Timing Analysis

NEAR’s price history from 2020 to 2026 reveals a pattern of extreme volatility characteristic of early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects. The token experienced a dramatic 731% surge in 2021 followed by severe corrections, with recent years showing continued downward pressure. Current market conditions reflect broader cryptocurrency market challenges and the ongoing debate about whether NEAR represents a buying opportunity or remains in a prolonged bearish phase. Investors must carefully weigh the protocol’s fundamental technology against recent price performance when determining optimal entry points.