NEAR Protocol price falls 9.48 percent to 5.10 USD

Published on 10/16/2026 at 22:51 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS

NEAR may cut issuance from 2.5 percent to 1.6 percent. NEAR Protocol price is 5.10 USD on October 16, 2026, down 9.48 percent.

Issuance and network security

A governance proposal dated October 7, 2026, would lower maximum annual issuance from 2.5 percent to 1.6 percent.
An October 1, 2026, exploit affected 11 chains and caused 3.8 million USD in losses.
The NEAR Protocol price stands at 5.10 USD as of October 16, 2026, 9.48 percent below the UTC daily close of October 15, 2026.
Staking yield in the proposal moves from 5.4 percent to 3.5 percent.

NEAR Protocol, XCRYPTONEAR9, Illustration mit AI erstellt.

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) falls 9.48 percent to 5.10 USD on October 16, 2026. The NEAR Protocol price stands at 5.10 USD as of October 16, 2026, compared with the UTC daily close of October 15, 2026. A governance proposal dated October 7, 2026, would lower maximum annual token issuance from 2.5 percent to 1.6 percent over 24 months.

Issuance draft targets 1.6 percent

The proposal was posted to the NEAR governance forum on October 7, 2026, according to Crypto Times. It would reduce the maximum rate of new NEAR creation while retaining the existing 90 percent allocation to staking participants and 10 percent allocation to the treasury.

The official governance discussion says the target rate would move staking yield from 5.4 percent to 3.5 percent. The change requires a House of Stake vote and subsequent adoption by validators through the standard upgrade process, according to NEAR governance. Staking is the process of locking tokens to help secure the network and earn protocol rewards.

October 1 exploit affected 11 chains

Network use also carries an operational counterpoint. On October 1, 2026, a bug involving the Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the NEAR Intents contract caused 3.8 million USD in losses, according to Trading Strategies. Deposits and withdrawals on 11 chains remained closed during the response, and the report said affected users were promised compensation.

The same report counted 533 million NEAR staked on October 1, 2026, equal to 41 percent of the token supply, with 413 active validators. That figure describes the portion of tokens committed to network security, while the issuance proposal would change the reward rate used to compensate those participants.

NEAR Protocol price data on October 16, 2026

According to Investing.com, NEAR trades at 5.10 USD as of October 16, 2026. That is 9.48 percent below the UTC daily close of October 15, 2026. The daily high is 5.36 USD and the daily low (UTC day) is 4.91 USD. Market capitalization is 6.62 billion USD, ranking NEAR 17th, while 24-hour volume is 1.59 billion USD. Circulating supply is 1.31 billion NEAR.