Getty Images Near Protocol's native token, NEAR ( NEAR-USD ), experienced a notable price surge this week, with a one-week return of more than 37%. The recent performance was driven by several new product launches centered on a privacy- and AI-focused narrative. Source: NEAR Protocol The Privacy Thesis While the broader cryptocurrency market is still in weakness, NEAR's performance stood out, driv...
Getty Images Near Protocol's native token, NEAR ( NEAR-USD ), experienced a notable price surge this week, with a one-week return of more than 37%. The recent performance was driven by several new product launches centered on a privacy- and AI-focused narrative. Source: NEAR Protocol The Privacy Thesis While the broader cryptocurrency market is still in weakness, NEAR's performance stood out, driven by a confluence of technical upgrades and ecosystem developments. At the heart of this rally is the recent launch of "Confidential Intents," a feature that enhances privacy in decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions. The "Confidential Intents" is a private execution layer designed to shield DeFi transactions from public view and prevent front-running and sandwich attacks. It routes transactions through a private shard linked to NEAR's mainnet, allowing users to toggle confidential accounts. Unlike typical privacy coins, Near's system offers optional confidentiality specifically for trade execution while maintaining auditability. This is particularly appealing to institutional investors, who have long cited privacy concerns as a barrier to on-chain adoption. As outlined in our annual outlook, privacy is a core thesis this year: In the 2024/2025 cycle, the crypto dominant theme has shifted away from censorship resistance and decentralization toward regulated stablecoins and real-world finance, both of which are largely centralized use cases. At the same time, Bitcoin is increasingly integrated into traditional finance and custodied by regulated financial institutions. Despite the industry drifting away from the original cyberpunk ethos, privacy remains a foundational human need, and as surveillance and compliance requirements intensify, the demand for privacy has not disappeared. - Whale's Market Outlook 2026 Near's AI Roadmap Beyond privacy, Near Protocol is positioning itself at the intersection of blockchain, autonomous agents, and privacy-preserving computes, and bra...
Three companies with a combination of excellent name recognition within their industries and strong free cash flow potential provide a stable investment option.
Three companies with a combination of excellent name recognition within their industries and strong free cash flow potential provide a stable investment option.
Set-plays have been in the headlines again this week, especially at corners with masses of players from both sides surrounding the six-yard box and the goalkeeper. I watched and rewatched many of these incidents myself and witnessed defending players holding attacking players around the waist, and not even looking at the delivery. That's a foul, and a penalty should be awarded. In fact, we're at t...
Set-plays have been in the headlines again this week, especially at corners with masses of players from both sides surrounding the six-yard box and the goalkeeper. I watched and rewatched many of these incidents myself and witnessed defending players holding attacking players around the waist, and not even looking at the delivery. That's a foul, and a penalty should be awarded. In fact, we're at the stage now where referees have to clamp down and give either penalties, or free-kicks to the defending team, if they see an offence. Howard Webb, where are you, and what instructions are you actually giving out to your officials as the head of Professional Games Match Officials Limited (PGMOL)? We are seeing players penalised outside the box for incidents that are nowhere near as blatant as the chaos we are witnessing in the six-yard box, and around the goalkeeper - so why is a foul in one part of the pitch, not a foul in this scenario? One of the things this chaos has led to is teams not defending properly now. Why should they, when they can get away with not even watching the cross come in? As a manager, I spent as much time working on defending crosses coming into our box as I did on us attacking crosses off set plays. We are killing the art of good defending by allowing this to continue, and let me also say that set-play coaches should be ashamed at allowing their team to defend in this way. I've heard many pundits come up with different suggestions of how we can stop this nonsense. Well, how about common sense? That tells me that if the referees start dishing out penalties and red cards, then it would not carry on.