Reviewed by Reviewed by Jacob Thomas Updated 14:00 EDT October 2, 2026 Share Share Share Back to Top NEAR Protocol [NEAR] has managed to stage a short-term recovery. This comes after its price action took a big hit during the recent security scare that threatened the confidence of investors
After the vulnerability issue, NEAR Intent was reported to halt its services from the project. The incident resulted in investors losing $3.8 million worth of funds. As a result, NEAR experienced some selling pressure due to the negative news as its price action recorded a significant drop
However, investor sentiment has shown signs of recovery as NEAR Protocol, in a recent post, revealed that the security issue was separate from the protocol itself
The recovery has been fueled primarily by retail market activity
According to the recent retail activity, retail orders continue to flock to the network. The direct impacts are already being felt on the token’s price action
Technically, on the hourly price chart, NEAR has posted seven consecutive hours of gains. It reclaimed the 20-day and 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) in the process
In other words, the steady climb suggests short-term sentiment has improved following the protocol’s clarification, with retail demand appearing to be doing most of the heavy lifting
Despite the bounce, NEAR’s long-term indicators still spark bearish signals. The network’s open interest continues to shrink alongside its trading volume, which has yet to return to the levels seen before the exploit announcement
The token’s trading volume has declined by 10% to $1.52 billion over the last 24 hours as of writing. Going hand in hand, its Open Interest (OI) shrunk by 9% to $265 million. Such readings indicate that institutional traders and leveraged participants remain cautious despite the improvement in price action
Without a meaningful recovery in these metrics, the latest rally could struggle to develop into a sustained uptrend
With the clarification of the protocol, all immediate worries regarding the exploit have been addressed, helping the buyers take control for the time being
Nevertheless, the markets have not yet recovered from the shock. Before the OI and the trading volumes start rising, this rally will have to gain strength by attracting more retail traders
Moreover, the price of NEAR has stabilized above its EMAs, but more strength must come from elsewhere
Kelvin Murithi is a crypto journalist and on-chain analyst covering market structure, price action and blockchain data. He is a Bsc. Actuarial Science graduate and harnesses his statistical and data analysis skills to translate complex metrics into clear insights for everyday crypto investors
