NEAR Protocol

NEAR Protocol is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed for AI-native applications, using sharding (Nightshade) for scalability up to billions of TPS and low fees. Founded in 2018 by Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov, it supports smart contracts via Aurora EVM, staking with NEAR token, and interoperability like Rainbow Bridge to Ethereum. NEAR price: ~$2.73, market cap: ~$3.3B.