Will The NEAR Protocol Survive After This Critical Vote? Will Validators Walk Away?

It’s hard to talk about crypto AI without mentioning the NEAR Protocol. Last year, the NEAR Protocol really took off because of Nvidia and everything the chipset manufacturer planned to do. That momentum was supposed to sustain the NEAR USDT upside for the better part of this year, but the market had other plans.

So far, the NEAR price is being battered. Price-wise, there is nothing to smile about. The NEAR USDT is down -52% year-to-date, while sellers are unrelenting. In the last month alone, NEAR crypto is down nearly -30%, pushing prices to critical support levels.

For optimists, however, every low may offer entries to buy now that AI is here to stay, and protocols that power these solutions stand to gain immensely. As of late October 2025, the NEAR Protocol is among the biggest crypto AI projects, commanding a market cap of over $2.7Bn. Cumulatively, all crypto AI tokens are worth north of $26Bn, up nearly -5% in the last 24 hours.

The NEAR Protocol is one of the leading crypto AI projects. Validators are currently voting on a proposal to halve rewards to +2.5%

(Source: Coingecko)

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NEAR Protocol Must Navigate And Emerge Stronger From This Vote

True, if the NEAR Protocol stays true to its course, the network would easily become one of the most valuable, even flipping the high-flying ChainOpera AI platform and the omnipresent Bittensor. Only time will tell.

In the short term, though, the NEAR Protocol must emerge stronger from this controversial vote. Validators are currently voting on a proposal that will see the blockchain halve network rewards, that is, inflation by -50% from +5% to +2.5%.

As it is, the NEAR Protocol has capped its maximum inflation rate at +5%, which, as expected, dilutes the total supply over time. However, this is necessary. The network will only be secure if there are many validators ensuring it is decentralized and reliable.

With the platform maturing, the HOT Protocol and LiNEAR Protocol posted on the NEAR Protocol forum that it would be ideal for the network to halve the inflation rate to +2.5%.

The halving part is now part of the NEAR Protocol’s agenda of enhancing their tokenomics. They will first cap annual NEAR emissions at +2.5%, reducing inflation and ensuring the supply is more predictable, even scarce.

The NEAR ecosystem is collaborating on a significant tokenomics upgrade

Building on 5 years of mainnet success, NEAR is entering its next major growth phase. NEAR now underpins multi-billion dollar volumes, powers the cross-chain liquidity layer for privacy-preserving assets,… pic.twitter.com/27OU0Y8Maw

— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) October 21, 2025

Additionally, through HPS-002, there will be a new support system for smaller validators. The idea here is to ensure the network is sufficiently decentralized. But, this won’t be enough. To further incentivize the HODLing culture, the NEAR Foundation is improving veNEAR incentives for NEAR stakers.

The NEAR Protocol is one of the leading crypto AI projects. Validators are currently voting on a proposal to halve rewards to +2.5%

(Source: House of Stake)

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Not Everyone Is Happy: Will NEAR Protocol Validators Walk Away?

As bullish as this proposal is, not everyone is happy. Most of the opposition comes from large validators and staking providers. Obviously, this lot will lose significant revenue should the vote go through.

On X, one validator, Chorus One, is urging all other validators not to vote or upgrade. They claim that the NEAR Foundation bulldozed the protocol, causing a “serious governance issue” that sets a “dangerous precedent” that eventually undermines the integrity of the protocol in the future.

NEAR Governance Proposal

We would like to publicly share our concerns regarding a serious governance issue currently happening on the @NEARProtocol blockchain.

— Chorus One (@ChorusOne) October 22, 2025

Evidently, there will be a security concern should other validators choose not to upgrade. As revenue-disrupting as this proposal is, others think this halving event should sail through.

On X, one critic said validators will be the affected lot, and it is understandable that they won’t want to lose money. In his view, validators are conflicted voters, and as a survival instinct, self-interest will still dominate, leading to status quo bias.

> “We believe this sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the integrity of NEAR.”

I love you, my Chorus One frens, but let’s be real: the reason you’re complaining is because your Near revenues would get halved.

Major problems that I see with that reasoning:

1. Validators… https://t.co/bdGacCJE6t

— 0xLouisT (@0xLouisT) October 22, 2025

Overall, supporters think this proposal forces the NEAR Protocol to hustle for real usage and not super incentivize network participation, especially from validators, through handouts.

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