Detecting DeFi Risk, Before It Breaks
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Chain Rating · Scorecard v1.0

NEAR Protocol

Blockchain · NEAR · $0.16B DeFi TVL. NEAR is a sharded proof-of-stake chain positioning itself around cross-chain transactions and AI agents. It holds about 0.2% of all-chain TVL.

Data As Of November 12, 2026 Methodology Chains v1.0 (provisional) Revenue To Coin Burn + buyback · Medium
SolvencyCREDIT GRADE
BB
54.8 / 100
Can the network keep paying for its own security?
Legitimacy
BBB
60.5 / 100
Is it what it says it is, and who controls it?
GrowthOUTLOOK
BB
50.5 / 100
Is usage growing, measured by value and fees?
How Revenue Reaches The Coin

Does NEAR Protocol's Revenue Help NEAR Holders?

Mechanism
Burn + buyback
Pass-through today
Medium
  • Burn: most of each transaction fee is destroyed. Base-layer fees are small.
  • Buyback: since February 23, 2026, all fees from cross-chain Intents executions fund open-market purchases of NEAR.
  • Reported Intents fee run-rate of roughly $33M to $58M a year, against about $110M of new issuance.

What it means for a holder. Revenue now reaches every holder through buybacks, offsetting perhaps a third of new supply. Supply still grows; the link strengthens only if Intents volume keeps rising.

Descriptive, not scored separately: the fee-against-issuance input in Solvency already carries the economic weight. Not investment advice.

Axis I · Credit Grade

Solvency — BB

Solvency screens at BB (54.8 / 100). Strongest input: supply pressure, next 12 months. Weakest input: fee revenue against new issuance.

Solvency ScorecardBB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
Fee revenue against new issuance0.01x
25%2.5
Chain fees of about $1.2M over the last 12 months against issuance of about 32M NEAR a year (about $110M). Counting cross-chain Intents fees, reported at $33M or more annualized, the ratio is still under 0.5x.
Stake concentration7 / 10
25%17.5
More than 300 validators, with about 44% of supply staked.
Supply pressure, next 12 months2.5%
15%12.8
Inflation halved to a maximum of 2.5% a year in October 2025. Supply is fully unlocked.
DeFi value stability (worst 90-day drawdown)45%
15%6
Liveness and incident history8 / 10
20%16
No major outage found.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE54.8 → BB
Axis II · Legitimacy

Legitimacy — BBB

Legitimacy screens at BBB (60.5 / 100). Strongest input: team and foundation transparency. Weakest input: client diversity and audits.

Legitimacy ScorecardBBB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
Client diversity and audits4 / 10
20%8
One node implementation.
Team and foundation transparency8 / 10
20%16
Delivery against roadmap8 / 10
20%16
Sharding upgrades and automatic shard splitting shipped; the inflation cut and fee switch were delivered on schedule.
Governance of upgrades4 / 10
25%10
The inflation cut was implemented in a protocol upgrade after the community vote fell short of its pass threshold.
Supply distribution7 / 10
15%10.5
Effectively all supply is circulating.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE60.5 → BBB
Axis III · Growth Outlook

Growth — BB

Growth screens at BB (50.5 / 100). Strongest input: defi tvl, 12-month trend. Weakest input: fee revenue, 12-month trend.

Growth ScorecardBB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
DeFi TVL, 12-month trend41%
25%20
Share of all-chain TVL0.21%
20%4
Fee revenue, 12-month trend-76%
20%2
Users and developers7 / 10
35%24.5
Cross-chain Intents volume above $15B cumulative; on-chain DeFi TVL remains small.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE50.5 → BB
Verdict

Where NEAR Protocol Lands

Weakest axis: Growth, BB. The token mechanics improved in the past year: lower inflation and a live buyback. Base-layer fees still cover almost none of the security budget, and the way the inflation cut was pushed through weighs on governance.

Credit Grade — Solvency
BB
54.8 / 100

The credit grade answers one question: can the network keep funding its security and stay live. Legitimacy and Growth are published beside it and are never averaged into it.

Analyst Note
The only chain in this group whose DeFi TVL grew over the year, with a buyback now routing application fees to the token.
Chains scorecard v1.0, provisional. Base networks are graded on the same three axes and AAA-to-D scale as DeFi protocols, with inputs suited to a chain. Fee, TVL and share figures come from DefiLlama as of November 12, 2026; the 0–10 inputs are analyst estimates from public sources and judgment. Growth leans on DeFi TVL and fee revenue, which understates chains used mainly for payments. Every input should be verified before being relied upon.
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