According to market data, NEAR surged more than 65% within a week following Hayes’ original comments. The move followed a long period of underperformance versus larger Layer-1 competitors like Solana, with some analysts arguing NEAR may have been undervalued based on network activity and daily active user metrics.

Hayes’ growing interest reflects a broader trend where investors are increasingly looking toward blockchain projects tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure. NEAR has spent the last 18 months expanding its positioning around AI-enabled applications, scalability, and autonomous on-chain systems, making it one of the more closely watched AI-related crypto projects heading deeper into 2026.