Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX and Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom, has predicted that NEAR Protocol’s native token, NEAR, has the potential to grow 20x by 2027. Speaking on “The Rollup” podcast on Monday, May 26, 2026, the veteran investor detailed a bullish outlook centered on the network’s specialized infrastructure for artificial intelligence and cross-chain privacy. The prediction follows a period of notable growth for the asset after Hayes first began highlighting the token earlier this month.
The market response to Hayes’ advocacy has been aggressive, with the NEAR price surging more than 90% since his public endorsements began in May 2026. As of today, May 26, the token is trading at $2.73, marking a gain of over 13% in the last 24 hours. While the current price is climbing, it follows a volatile week where the token hit a six-month high of $2.34 on Friday, May 23. This recent upward movement has seen crypto liquidations rise across the board, with NEAR alone triggering over $9.85 million in short liquidations during the Friday rally.
Hayes’ investment thesis rests on the protocol’s technical utility, particularly a feature known as NEAR Intents. This technology allows AI agents to move assets privately across different blockchains without the need for traditional bridges or fragmented liquidity. Hayes argued that this infrastructure makes privacy-centric assets practical for the first time, noting that he can now send any crypto asset anonymously from shielded Zcash using the NEAR Intents framework.
The holy trinity of altcoins and the privacy cycle
In a post published on May 22, 2026, Hayes explicitly labeled NEAR as a member of his “holy trinity” of speculative bets, alongside Zcash (ZEC) and Hyperliquid’s native token (HYPE). While he foresees a 20x return for NEAR by 2027, he offered a relatively more modest 5x potential for Zcash over the next year. This strategic grouping reflects a bet on high-performance trading infrastructure, privacy, and scalable AI integration.
The investor believes the market is entering a “privacy-focused crypto cycle,” where Zcash serves as the entry point for anonymous transfers and NEAR provides the usability layer. While NEAR has seen double-digit gains today, Zcash is currently trading at $610, down over 7% in the last 24 hours. This divergence suggests that while the “holy trinity” assets are fundamentally linked in Hayes’ view, they move according to their own local market dynamics.
Investor interest in high-growth potential is not limited to established protocols. Recent trends show altcoin demand shifting toward new opportunities as the market looks for the next breakout narratives. For Hayes, however, NEAR remains a top-tier choice because it currently trades at approximately 56x annualized fees, a valuation he described as “cheap” compared to major Layer 1 peers like Ethereum or Solana.
Scaling for AI agents and the 2027 outlook
A central pillar of the bull case for NEAR is its role in supporting the “AI-agent economy.” These autonomous applications require a way to execute on-chain payments and trades without human oversight. The NEAR ecosystem has already established an AI Agent Market and a confidential GPU marketplace to meet this demand. This focus on AI is partially driven by co-founder Illia Polosukhin, a notable figure in AI research before entering the blockchain space.
Illia Polosukhin has indicated that the development team is targeting next year for “intents” revenue to surpass token inflation. This shift toward a sustainable economic model is critical for the long-term price targets Hayes has set. Currently, the protocol’s market capitalization is approaching $3 billion, having risen over 50% during the month of May. To reach a 20x valuation by 2027, the network would need to capture a significant portion of the emerging AI and privacy markets.
Technical milestones are also on the horizon to support this growth. The protocol is scheduled for a major network upgrade in June 2026, which will introduce “Dynamic Resharding.” This feature will automatically scale the network’s capacity by adding shards as transaction demand increases. This type of technical resilience was recently mirrored in other parts of the market, such as when a Hyperliquid whale defended the $40 level to maintain market structure during a volatile period.
As the “holy trinity” narrative gains traction, local metrics continue to signal strong interest. Trading volume for NEAR jumped 190% to $1.15 billion during the rally last Friday. For now, the market appears to be pricing in the technological promises of NEAR Intents and AI integration, as Hayes continues to urge investors to “pack your bags for da moon” ahead of the projected 2027 expansion.