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Bitwise Launches First US Spot NEAR ETF With Staking Fees Taking 33% of Rewards
Bitwise launched the first US spot NEAR exchange-traded fund, a fund holding NEAR tokens directly. Its staking fees take 33% of rewards, shared by three parties including Bitwise and Attestant, the affiliate expected to run its validators.
Published:
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What happened
Bitwise launched the first US spot NEAR exchange-traded fund, a fund holding NEAR tokens directly. Its staking fees take 33% of rewards, shared by three parties including Bitwise and Attestant, the affiliate expected to run its validators.
Confirmed
Global impact / market context
This gives US investors a regulated way to hold NEAR tokens without buying them directly. Staking rewards, meaning payments for helping run the network, are split three ways, so investors keep only about two-thirds of that income.
Analyst inference
A spot fund holds actual NEAR tokens, unlike futures-based funds. Taking a third of staking rewards is a high fee for such products, so rival issuers may face pressure to offer cheaper terms to win investor money.
Analyst inference
What to watch
- Attestant is the affiliate expected to run the fund's validators, the computers that verify NEAR transactions and earn the staking rewards being shared among the three parties. Confirmed
- Watch whether Bitwise, Attestant, or the third unnamed party changes the 33% staking fee split, since the article does not say who the third party is. Proposed
- Falling NEAR prices could shrink staking rewards in dollar terms, cutting the fees Bitwise and partners collect, while rising prices could attract more investor money into the fund. Analyst inference
Affected assets
- NEAR — NEAR Protocol