Wintermute Names NEAR Main Winner of Crypto’s Pivot to AI

Market maker Wintermute has identified NEAR Protocol as the standout winner of crypto’s ongoing rotation into artificial intelligence narratives, even as the broader market suffered one of its worst weeks of the year.

A Brutal Week for Most Coins

During week 41 of 2026, Bitcoin fell 3.2% to close near $83,000 while Ethereum dropped 7.0% — hurt partly by a reputational shock after an Ethereum Foundation researcher publicly urged users to migrate funds to new wallet addresses. The altcoin sector recorded a median decline of 3.7%, with only 11 of the top 66 projects closing the week in positive territory.

The trigger was macro: hawkish signals from the US Federal Reserve accelerated capital outflows from digital assets into traditional markets. Minutes from the Fed meeting indicated most officials expected another rate increase before year-end, pushing the 10-year US government bond yield to a multi-year high of 5.24%.

The carnage showed up in the data: $1.19 billion in forced liquidations, including $1.06 billion in long positions. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $679 million in weekly outflows — their largest since June — while Ethereum ETFs saw $542 million leave. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 1.2% on the week.

NEAR Defies the Sell-Off

Against that backdrop, NEAR emerged as the AI sector’s leading performer, benefiting from renewed interest in AI-related tokens, a network security development, and a short squeeze that accelerated its rally. Open interest in NEAR-linked futures contracts hit an all-time high of $1.92 billion on October 12, according to Coinglass data.

The shift reflects a clear narrative rotation: with capital fleeing traditional DeFi tokens under macro pressure, investors are gravitating toward projects tied to artificial intelligence — the one theme still drawing fresh speculative interest.

Source: Crypto-Economy, Hokanews