NEAR Protocol’s native token NEAR has been performing extremely well on the charts. As mentioned in one of our earlier articles, about a week ago – its steady price action has been very heartening. It has since then continued on its upward path despite a minor correction in between in line with the broader market fall two days ago.

It has rallied over 130% since the beginning of March 2022. The best part is that the rally wasn’t an overnight jump because of some news story but rather a gradual, steady rise with multiple brief profit booking periods in between. Now trading just 8% away from its ATH – seems like it is all prepared to break it.

NEAR/USDT | Source: Tradingview

However, it must also be noted that the ATH would be a tough resistance to breach and a little dillydallying may follow after hitting the $20.5-21 level (blue line). $13-14 would serve as a strong level of support so a consolidation phase may soon follow.

One of the biggest changes that have been observed on the metrics front is the on-chain volumes. The last time, volumes were rising but hadn’t reached any crucial level. Now, however, NEAR’s on-chain volume is just shy of breaking ATH levels. This points at growing strength in the coin, week on week.

On-chain Volumes | Source: Santiment

Along with that, there seems to be a rising bullish sentiment in the derivatives players too. Funding rates for NEAR Perpetual Futures on both Binance and FTX exchanges are currently in the positive territory.

Typically, when the funding rate is positive, the price of the perpetual contract is higher than the mark price, thus, traders who are long pay for short positions. Conversely, a negative funding rate indicates that perpetual prices are below the mark price, which means