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NEAR, the native token of the Layer 1 (L1) blockchain Near Protocol, has surged to a one-month high after breaking out of a previous downtrend that saw the token hit a low of $4 on July 5. Currently trading at $5.93, NEAR has recorded a substantial 20% gain over the past week, propelling it to the 19th position among the top 100 cryptocurrencies.  This positive momentum has drawn the attention of venture capital firm Pantera Capital, whose Managing Partner, Paul Veradittakit, has shared several reasons for the firm’s bullish stance on NEAR’s protocol and its growth potential. Scalability Solution Amidst Bitcoin And Ethereum Challenges Veradittakit took to social media on Thursday to highlight NEAR’s value proposition within the blockchain ecosystem.  Veradittakit noted that while Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have been at the forefront of the crypto technology “revolution,” with Bitcoin establishing itself as a store of value and Ethereum supporting smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), both face “challenges” related to transaction scalability.  According to Pantera’s MP, this is where NEAR Protocol plays a key role in addressing these scalability issues while prioritizing developer engagement and user experience by offering a scalable and user-centric blockchain solution. Related Reading: Crypto Analyst Predicts XRP Price To Hit $1.03 Soon, Warns Of Initial Dip NEAR distinguishes itself with its Thresholded Proof of Stake (TPoS) system and Nightshade sharding, which increases scalability and decentralization. These advancements have paved the way for NEAR to achieve significant milestones, such as reaching $335 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), an increase of 547% in just six months.  According to Veradittakit, such growth demonstrates NEAR’s traction and strategic effectiveness in the market. Furthermore, NEAR’s market presence is fortified by key metrics, including a 42% quarter-on-quarter increase in daily active addresses, a surge in transactions from 35 million to over 220 million, and a substantial rise in monthly active users from 2.9 million to 15 million. NEAR And Crypto AI Integration Notably, NEAR is also positioning itself as a leader in the emerging crypto artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, which has gained significant traction especially over the past year with surges of firms like Nvidia.  The NEAR team has emphasized the integration of AI through an open and decentralized framework, which places user control over data and assets at the forefront.  This has garnered recognition, as NEAR has been announced as part of Grayscale’s AI Fund. The fund’s component assets and weightings include Bittensor at 2.92%, Filecoin at 30.59%, Livepeer at 8.64%, NEAR at 32.99%, and Render at 24.86%. Related Reading: THORChain (RUNE) Primed For Big Gains, Analyst Eyes $20 Milestone Lastly, Veradittakit emphasized that NEAR’s success can be attributed to the leadership of its co-founders, Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov, as Polosukhin’s expertise in AI and Skidanov’s engineering understanding has been “instrumental” in developing NEAR’s infrastructure.  Despite reaching its monthly high of $5.93 and a substantial 300% gain year-to-date, the token will need to break above the $8.28 level in the short term to break out of its downtrend structure.   However, with these advancements and the adoption of AI-related tokens, NEAR may be poised for further gains throughout the year, helped along by the broader market’s recovery.  Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com