NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Funding Rate

NEAR Protocol Funding Rate Overview

The NEAR Protocol (NEAR) perpetual funding rate is a periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders of NEAR perpetual futures contracts, designed to keep the perpetual price anchored to the underlying spot price. When NEAR funding is positive, longs pay shorts — signalling bullish leveraged crowding. When negative, shorts pay longs — often during a capitulation or heavy hedging flow. Sharpe aggregates NEAR funding rates from 13 exchanges with each exchange's rate normalized to annualized APR (APR = rate × 8,760 / interval_hours) so you can directly compare 1-hour rates from Hyperliquid against 8-hour rates from Binance, Bybit, and OKX.

About NEAR Protocol Perpetual Funding

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) perpetual futures clear $150M to $400M OI on Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Bitget. NEAR funding has been AI-narrative-dominated since early 2024 — Illia Polosukhin's AI background (original Transformer paper co-author) and NEAR AI infrastructure launch positioned NEAR as the primary AI-crypto L1 play. Baseline NEAR funding runs 0.005% to 0.02% per 8h, with sharp spikes during AI narrative rotations (Feb-Mar 2024 AI agent mania, late 2024 NEAR AI announcements). NEAR has native staking (~9-10% yield) providing strong long structural bias. NEAR's chain abstraction and multi-chain strategy (Aurora EVM, chain signatures) add ecosystem event windows. Tiered storage cost model creates predictable protocol-level economics.

How to Read the NEAR Funding Rate

NEAR funding is highly coupled to the AI crypto narrative cycle. Cross-reference NEAR funding with FET, TAO, AGIX, RNDR — the AI basket moves together. Isolated NEAR funding spikes usually mean NEAR-specific announcements (NEAR AI, chain signatures); correlated AI-basket moves confirm broader rotation. Binance and Bybit NEAR funding move in lockstep most periods. NEAR token unlocks (investor/team) through 2025 add predictable short pressure around unlock dates. The Feb 2024 AI agent peak saw NEAR funding hit 0.12% per 8h — the highest in NEAR's history — followed by 60% mean reversion over 6 weeks. Funding above 0.08% per 8h has reliably marked late-stage AI narrative tops.

NEAR Funding Rate Signals

Use the NEAR funding rate as three separate signals. First, as a sentiment indicator: persistent 8-hour rates above 0.03% (~33% APR) often precede NEAR Protocol corrections as leveraged longs crowd. Second, as a carry opportunity: hold long spot + short perp to collect the funding payment while staying delta-neutral — use Sharpe's arbitrage calculator to size the trade. Third, as a cross-exchange divergence signal: when Binance NEAR funding diverges meaningfully from OKX or Hyperliquid, the positioning asymmetry often precedes a volatility expansion. Sharpe's funding rate terminal and leaderboard surface these divergences automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the current NEAR Protocol funding rate?

As of 2026-05-07 03:31 UTC, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) is funding at 0.0100% on Binance (8-hour interval, 0.11% annualized). Sharpe tracks 13 venues for NEAR — the highest NEAR APR right now is 0.60% on Hyperliquid, the lowest is 0.00% on CoinEx. Open the table on this page for the full live cross-exchange comparison.

Which exchanges have the highest NEAR Protocol funding rate?

As of 2026-05-07 03:31 UTC, the top three NEAR funding venues by annualized APR are: Hyperliquid at 0.60%, Deribit at 0.46%, KuCoin at 0.19%. The bottom three (best for paying-side carry) are: CoinEx at 0.00%, HTX at 0.04%, Bitget at 0.11%. Rankings rotate each settlement window — Sharpe's leaderboard sorts all 5,000+ perpetual pairs across 13 tracked exchanges by current rate or annualized APR.

How is the NEAR Protocol funding rate calculated?

Exchange-calculated funding rates combine three inputs: the premium index (NEAR perpetual price minus the spot reference index), the interest rate component (typically fixed at 0.01% per 8 hours), and a clamp function that caps the final rate at ±0.375% on most exchanges. The formula is: funding = clamp(premium_index + interest_rate, ±cap). Different exchanges use slightly different index sources, which explains the cross-venue rate differences.

What is the annualized APR on NEAR Protocol funding?

APR = rate × (8,760 / interval_hours). For 8-hour funding (Binance, Bybit, OKX), a 0.01% rate annualizes to 10.95% APR. For 1-hour funding (Hyperliquid), the same 0.01% rate annualizes to 87.6% APR. Sharpe's table auto-normalizes every NEAR funding rate to APR so you can rank yields across exchanges without manual conversion.

Does NEAR Protocol funding rate arbitrage work?

Yes, when rates are high enough to overcome trading fees and execution slippage. The classic trade is long spot NEAR + short NEAR perp on the same exchange — you earn the funding rate each settlement while staying delta-neutral. Historical BTC and ETH funding rate arbitrage has yielded 10–40% annualized in bull markets. Use Sharpe's arbitrage calculator to size the trade with realistic fee and holding assumptions before execution.

Where does Sharpe get NEAR Protocol funding rate data?

Sharpe fetches NEAR funding rates via direct REST API calls to each of the 13 supported exchanges — no third-party aggregator dependency. Rates update on each exchange's settlement schedule (every 1 hour for Hyperliquid and dYdX v4, every 8 hours for Binance, Bybit, OKX, and most others). Historical data is stored for trend analysis and accumulated-carry calculations.