Bitwise's NEAR ETF Clears NYSE Arca With a 0.75% Fee and Full Staking

NYSE Arca has cleared the Bitwise NEAR Protocol spot ETF to list and trade under the ticker NRR. The fund charges 0.75% a year, keeps its holdings with Coinbase Custody and intends to stake all of them. Bitwise filed a Form 8-A with the SEC on 24 September, the short registration that precedes a listing, and reports of the approval itself ran across the two days after. Three outlets call NRR the first US spot ETF tied to NEAR, a layer-1 network whose testnet banks have used for post-quantum transfer trials. Onshore exposure until now ran mainly through the Grayscale NEAR Trust.

What the fee buys

The 0.75% is the management fee, and it sits high against the newer single-asset funds. Bitwise's own Chainlink product runs at zero and its HYPE product at 0.34%, on The Block's tracker of alternative crypto funds. Staking is where NRR parts company with a plain holder. Under normal market conditions the trust intends to stake 100% of its NEAR, with Coinbase Custody handling both the custody and the staking work. The prospectus language, quoted by CoinGape on Friday and by Yellow the same afternoon, sets out who keeps the proceeds.

"The Staking Expenses will equal 33% of the amount of the additional NEAR generated by the staking," the filing said.

The other 67% accrues to the trust. Crypto Briefing alone puts BNY Mellon alongside Coinbase in the custody arrangement. No other account read here mentions the bank, and the detail is left standing as that outlet's.

An exchange step, not a verdict from the SEC

Clearance here is the exchange signing off against standing criteria. Since the SEC approved generic listing standards for commodity-based and crypto exchange-traded products in September 2025, a qualifying fund can reach a listing without an order of its own. KuCoin stated the distinction plainly in its Saturday flash: the approval is an exchange-level step, and the Commission has neither approved nor disapproved the securities. The trust was formed in April 2025, which Crypto Briefing counts as roughly 17 months of work. That figure stands on one account.

The numbers that do not line up

When the approval landed is itself unsettled. CoinGape treated it as Friday's news, Crypto Briefing gave the date as 24 September, and KuCoin dated only the Form 8-A. None of the three cites a docket entry, and they do not reconcile. How far NEAR ran splits the same way. CoinGape and Yellow, both on Friday, give about 20% over 24 hours and about 36% over the prior week; Crypto Briefing, writing Sunday, gives the same daily move but about 26% for the week. Prices come with their own timestamps: about $5 with a $5.05 high on Friday, $5.41 early Saturday, and a brief touch of roughly $5 by Sunday midday. CoinGape also carries a 175% rally with no period attached, so it is left out.

No date on the tape

Trading has not started. Crypto Briefing expects it around 29 September; PANews, filing later the same day, says no listing date has been announced. Neither gives a source for the timing. Seed capital is thin so far, at 8 shares of $25 each and $200 of net assets as of 28 July, with Bitwise Investment Manager down for 20,000 shares at $500,000. The field NRR joins is small as well. The Block's tracker counted 36 alternative funds holding $1.00 billion between them on Sunday, with 21 more pending. Approval is not demand: Bitwise is closing its Dogecoin ETF less than a year after launch. First-day volume on NRR is the number that will say which way this one goes.