NEAR Surpasses $70M Confidential TVL, Triggering First Major Token Reward Milestone

Quick Summary

NEAR has reached a significant infrastructure milestone by surpassing $70 million in confidential TVL, which has officially triggered the first snapshot for the NEAR@3.33 Incentive Milestone Program. This growth validates the demand for private cross-chain execution that eliminates predatory MEV and front-running for institutional and retail traders alike.

How Does NEAR Intents Solve Onchain Privacy Issues?

Confidential Intents provides a robust solution for users who require privacy without the heavy computational costs of traditional zero-knowledge systems. By routing transactions through a NEAR private shard, the platform effectively eliminates mempool exposure and predatory MEV tactics like front-running. This infrastructure is essential for high-volume cross-chain swaps, allowing institutions and autonomous AI agents to operate with depth and privacy. Key benefits include:

• Zero mempool exposure to prevent strategy leakage.
• Protection against front-running and sandwich attacks.
• Support for 30+ connected blockchains for seamless execution.

By reaching the $70 million confidential TVL mark, NEAR demonstrates that private execution is no longer a niche requirement but a core industry standard for the next generation of decentralized finance.

What Are the Rewards for the NEAR@3.33 Milestone?

The achievement of this milestone triggers "Drop 1" of the milestone incentive program, making 333,333 tokens available to the community. Unlike standard airdrops, this program prioritizes active user participation and long-term ecosystem health. To qualify for rewards, users must meet specific onchain activity criteria, including:

• Maintaining a confidential balance above $100.
• Demonstrating an active swap history on the platform.
• Adhering to a 2% per-wallet cap to ensure broad distribution.

Rewards remain locked until the NEAR three-day Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) reaches $3.33, at which point the milestone tokens convert into NEAR, aligning user incentives with growth.

Why is Confidential Execution Essential for Institutions?

For institutional players, confidentiality is non-negotiable when executing large-scale trades. Strategy leakage can lead to significant slippage and lost revenue. NEAR provides the vertically integrated stack necessary to support the emerging agent economy, where AI agents and enterprises require verifiable and private environments. With over $30 billion in volume already processed, the platform offers the scalability and cross-chain liquidity depth required for professional-grade trading.

"Confidentiality is quickly becoming a core requirement for the industry, and NEAR is becoming the rail to make it the new default. This milestone shows that confidential execution is moving beyond a niche use case and becoming the foundation for the next generation of onchain finance. By combining cross-chain liquidity with protection against front-running, strategy leakage, and other forms of MEV, NEAR is giving institutions and DeFi users a more secure way to transact at scale while preserving the speed and usability they expect." said Alex Shevchenko, GM of NEAR Intents.

FF NEWS TAKE:

Privacy is the final frontier for institutional DeFi. By hitting $70 million in confidential TVL, NEAR is proving that "confidential by default" isn't just a cypherpunk dream—it’s a commercial necessity. While competitors struggle with the complexity of ZK-proofs, NEAR’s private shard approach offers a pragmatic path to MEV-resistant trading. This moves the needle by making onchain markets actually usable for high-volume, sensitive institutional capital.