Near (NEAR) is the native token of Near Protocol, a network for the development of decentralized applications (dApps), and is the second best-performing weekly digital asset within the top 100 market caps.
From February 25th to March 3rd, NEAR price increased from $0.97 to $1.37, representing an increase of 42.3%.as seen in the following graph.
This price increase was made after the official release of “Confidential Intents”. The feature was announced on February 24th at the NEARCON conference in San Francisco, USA, and has been enabled since March 2nd.
As reported by the team behind the project, Confidential Intents routes transactions through private shards connected to the main network.
This allows users to operate from confidential accounts, Prevent certain data (such as order size, address, timing, etc.) from being displayed before payment.
In public networks, pending transactions are often exposed in a temporary memory area. Automated bots can detect relevant orders and execute a strategy known as maximum withdrawable value. (VEM). These techniques, including frontal attacks and sandwich attacks, can affect the final price that a trader obtains.
Note that a frontal attack in this context is a ploy to exploit the order and visibility of pending transactions to gain an economic advantage over another user without compromising the security of the protocol.
A “sandwich” attack occurs when a bot detects a large order before it is confirmed, executes a similar trade just before to cause the price to fluctuate, and immediately executes another trade for profit.
In this way, the original user ends up buying and selling at unfavorable prices due to temporary operations generated by the bot itself.
Near’s proposal does not hide all transactions by default. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Monero, which are designed to keep each operation private. The system provides optional confidentiality focused on business performance.
Although only specific transfers or positions can be hidden from public view, the general framework maintains selective disclosure mechanisms that meet regulatory requirements.
According to the project team, this product has a special direction For institutions seeking to avoid public disclosure of their strategies in open registries.
Regulation, automation and artificial intelligence
The announcement comes amid growing regulatory pressure on financial anonymity tools and growing debate over the use of data in digital services.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, the European Union’s DAC8 directive came into effect on January 1, 2026, requiring service providers related to virtual currencies to collect and report tax information about users to tax authorities.
In parallel, Dubai has incorporated into its regulations an explicit ban on tokens designed to anonymize transactions and the use of obfuscation tools within its jurisdiction.
This regulatory backdrop has reignited the debate over privacy on public networks. The fact that projects that have integrated confidentiality mechanisms are recording price increases in the face of increased reporting requirements suggests that a segment of the market considers the protection of operational data to be a very important factor, especially in environments where traceability is mandated.
At the same time, advances in systems based on artificial intelligence (AI) are intensifying the debate over privacy. As more tasks, including financial decisions, are delegated to automated agents, The circulation of sensitive information such as IDs, balance sheets, transaction history, investment criteria, etc. will increase.
In this scenario, some analysts, such as Michael van de Poppe, have proposed that if automated agents begin to perform transfers and exchanges without direct human intervention, privacy at runtime will become an operational requirement rather than just a technical priority. However, he stressed that for him, it is a good investment. “I really like NEAR,” he said.
