NEAR Surges 31%! XRP ETF Inflows Skyrocket 8.8M, Crypto Rally Explodes!

NEAR Protocol saw the biggest gains, jumping 31% to $2.26 and becoming the most talked-about coin on CoinGecko with a 48.9% increase over the past week, fueled by growing interest in AI-related cryptocurrencies. Investments in XRP ETFs rose by $8.88 million – the largest daily increase in weeks – and HYPE ETFs gained another $16.15 million. Meanwhile, Bitcoin dipped slightly to $76,750 (-0.2%), and the market’s Fear & Greed Index dropped to 39 (indicating Fear) after briefly reaching Neutral the previous day.

NEAR experienced a significant 31% price increase today, with over $1.24 billion traded, making it the most promising mid-sized cryptocurrency investment of the day. Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for XRP and Solana continued to see inflows, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs experienced over $100 million in outflows.

BOB, Audiera, and Genius lead the gainer board with real volume

On May 22nd, CoinGecko’s list of top-performing cryptocurrencies showed unusually high trading activity. BOB (Build on Bitcoin) saw the biggest jump, increasing by 73.7% with $27 million in trades. Audiera continued its upward trend, rising 67.1% on $49.5 million in volume, and Genius increased by 40.4% with $68.3 million in trades. These high trading volumes indicate real interest in these coins, rather than just small, insignificant price fluctuations.

Railgun’s impressive 50.2% increase is happening alongside a wider rise in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies – Zcash is up 27.13% this week, and other tokens supporting privacy features are also gaining value. BOB’s focus on building on the Bitcoin network fits with the current trend of investors moving into Bitcoin’s layer-2 solutions.

Block Street (BSB) was the biggest loser this week, plummeting 48.6% with $78 million in trades. Nexus erased its previous gains, falling 21.1%, and Banana For Scale continued to decline from its recent high, dropping 19.8%.

BSB experienced a significant drop of 48.6% with $78 million in trading volume. This token had been flagged earlier in the week as being at high risk of liquidation, and the price collapse indicates that leveraged bets on BSB have likely been closed out.

NEAR tops trending at +31% as AI-crypto narrative accelerates

Honestly, looking at the smaller and up-and-coming cryptos on May 22nd was way more interesting than the usual top coins. NEAR Protocol really stood out, jumping almost 31% to $2.26. It was a huge trading day for NEAR, with over $1.24 billion traded – one of the busiest I’ve seen for an altcoin all month.

NEAR is currently experiencing significant growth, fueled by increasing interest in its potential as a platform for AI agents, a trend that began with the launch of NEAR AI earlier this year. Grass is also benefiting from this trend, seeing a rise in value as it focuses on AI data infrastructure. Additionally, Ondo has increased by over 12%, likely due to growing interest in tokenized real-world assets, especially after recent reports from the SEC regarding tokenized stocks.

I’m really watching HYPE right now – it’s up over 38% this week, making it the best performer among the top 15 coins. After a huge jump, it seems to be settling around $60, which is a good sign – looks like it’s taking a breather and building a base, not losing steam.

BTC and ETH drift lower as majors lag the mid-cap rally

Bitcoin and Ethereum saw slight drops in price today, while smaller and alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) generally increased in value. Bitcoin decreased by 0.2% to $76,750, and Ethereum fell 0.1% to $2,114. Over the past three days, this pattern of larger coins underperforming altcoins has been consistent – NEAR Protocol gained 48.9%, HYPE rose 38.6%, and Grass increased 43.9%, while both Bitcoin and Ethereum have each fallen about 4.5%.

TRX is the only cryptocurrency in the top 10 that has gained value this week, increasing by 2.8%. This suggests TRON is effectively used for stablecoin transactions. BNB has experienced the smallest decrease among major Layer-1 blockchains, falling 2.1% over the past week, while XRP and DOGE have underperformed, dropping 5.7% and 5.9% respectively. Bitcoin’s dominance has slightly decreased from 60.0% to 59.8%, indicating that investors are starting to move funds into alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins).

ETF flows: XRP posts best day in weeks, HYPE keeps accumulating

Data from May 21st indicates that the pace of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF outflows is slowing down, while more alternative cryptocurrencies are seeing inflows. Overall, crypto ETFs experienced a net outflow of $138.305 million.

Bitcoin spot ETFs (May 21)

Bitcoin outflows are slowing down: they’ve decreased from $648 million, to $331 million, then to $72 million, and most recently to $101 million. While most of the outflow is still happening with the IBIT fund (-$103.65M), ARKB saw an inflow of $2.83 million, which is a positive sign – it’s the first significant positive flow from a major Bitcoin ETF in over a week. Overall, the total net assets of Bitcoin ETFs have risen above $101 billion.

Ethereum spot ETFs (May 21)

Ethereum (ETH) outflows continued to decrease, moving from $62.30 million to $28.14 million and then to $32.58 million. While most ETH products experienced outflows, two specific funds—ETHB and ETHW—saw inflows of $3.29 million and $2.14 million respectively, suggesting that smaller ETH investment products are currently more attractive to investors than ETHA.

Altcoin ETFs: XRP’s best day, HYPE keeps building

XRP saw a large increase in investment yesterday, with $8.88 million flowing in – its biggest single-day gain in weeks. This was primarily driven by inflows into the Canary XRPC and Bitwise XRP funds, which brought in $6.58 million and $2.31 million respectively. Total investments into XRP ETFs have now reached $1.4 billion for the first time. Remarkably, these ETFs have seen positive or stable investment flows in 13 out of the last 16 trading days.

HYPE ETFs continued to gain popularity, attracting another $16.15 million in investments (with $7.71 million going to THYP and $8.44 million to BHYP). This brings the total investment in HYPE ETFs to $63.96 million, and their total value to $81.13 million – more than doubling in under a week. Meanwhile, SOL ETFs saw an increase of $3.86 million, all through Fidelity’s FSOL fund, bringing their total value close to $1 billion at $997.41 million.

The recent success of altcoin ETFs isn’t just about money flowing in while Bitcoin’s price drops. They’re experiencing significant growth overall. For example, the HYPE ETF has almost quadrupled its assets in a week, XRP has seen over $1.4 billion invested, and SOL is quickly approaching $1 billion in net assets.

Liquidations normalize as short/long split converges

According to CoinGlass, the number of forced liquidations is decreasing, and the balance between short and long positions is becoming more even. This suggests that traders have mostly finished adjusting their strategies after the recent price drop.

Looking at the liquidation data over the past three days, I’m seeing a clear shift in market dynamics. We started Monday with a heavy 88% leaning towards long positions, but by Wednesday that flipped dramatically to 57.5% short. Thursday saw a slight adjustment to 52.1% shorts. This convergence towards a 50/50 split suggests that the forced selling is likely over, and we’re now entering a more balanced market where prices are determined by genuine buying and selling. Importantly, total liquidations came in at $174.46 million, which is the lowest we’ve seen since before the significant selloff in May. This indicates a cooling off and potentially a stabilization in the market.

Liquidations by asset

Recent liquidations of NEAR totaled $12.29 million, likely caused by a 31% price increase that squeezed those betting against it. Liquidations for HYPE decreased to $14.96 million from $43.40 million yesterday, indicating the recent price surge (or ‘squeeze’) for HYPE is likely over and the token is now stabilizing around $60.

Exchange breakdown (4h)

As a researcher, I’ve observed some interesting activity on decentralized exchanges. On Hyperliquid, a significant 80.41% of positions are currently long over the last four hours, indicating traders are actively opening new bullish positions – which aligns with the positive sentiment surrounding the HYPE token. In contrast, Binance shows a more even distribution with 63.38% long positions, suggesting a mix of both buying and selling pressure across the broader market.

Funding rates

Funding rates for major cryptocurrencies are slightly positive (between 0.0028% and 0.0141% for Bitcoin across different exchanges), indicating the market isn’t excessively using leverage in either direction. XRP and HYPE are showing mixed or slightly negative funding rates on some exchanges, which suggests these markets are more balanced or leaning slightly towards more sellers than buyers.

Crypto stocks: Broad weakness as miners give back Wednesday’s gains

Shares of companies involved in cryptocurrency declined on Thursday, undoing some of the positive movement seen the previous day. This was particularly noticeable for companies directly focused on crypto (like SoSoValue).

The market experienced a small, widespread dip, with most stocks falling between 1% and 3%. Riot Games was the only stock to increase in value, rising by 0.87%. Overall, trading was indecisive, mirroring the recent stable price of Bitcoin. IREN saw a slight decrease of 2.28% following a large gain yesterday, but this is likely just a correction, not a significant change in trend.

Sentiment

As I’ve been monitoring the market, the Fear & Greed Index dipped slightly to 39, indicating ‘Fear,’ after a brief touch of 41 (‘Neutral’) yesterday. While this is a drop, I don’t think it’s a major signal, as the index has been fluctuating between 37 and 41 all week. In fact, looking at the trend since Monday, it’s still generally moving upwards. Beyond that, the Altcoin Season Index remained steady at 38 out of 100, and the CMC 20 Index was almost unchanged, sitting at $155.39 – a minimal decrease of 0.05%.

As I’ve been tracking the market, I’ve noticed a slight but important shift in Bitcoin’s dominance. It’s dipped from 60.0% to 59.8%, which is the first time this week we’ve seen it fall below 60%. This suggests investors are starting to move funds into alternative cryptocurrencies, specifically mid-cap coins like NEAR, HYPE, and ONDO.

Macro context

Levels to watch

Bitcoin has been trading between $75,000 and $78,606 for the past five days, with recent trading narrowing to a range of $76,500 to $77,700 over the last three days. Analysts expect a breakout from this range soon. If Bitcoin rises above $78,606, it could signal the end of the recent price correction. Conversely, a drop below $75,000 could lead to further declines, potentially testing support levels between $71,813 and $73,911.

Ethereum is currently struggling to break through a resistance level around $2,150. The price has been bouncing between $2,100 and $2,150 for the past four days. A significant increase in trading volume combined with a move above $2,150 would suggest Ethereum is starting to recover.

Market outlook

As a researcher, I’m observing that the market seems to be pausing after a sharp sell-off between May 12th and 18th. The intense selling pressure has eased – we’re seeing fewer forced liquidations, ETF outflows are slowing down, and overall market sentiment is starting to level out, currently in the high 30s to low 40s. The fact that short positions were the first to cover suggests that the period of forced selling is likely over. However, we haven’t entered a recovery phase yet. Bitcoin is still trading within a limited range around $76,750, about 6% below its 200-day moving average, and ETFs are still experiencing net outflows.

The market’s focus is shifting away from Bitcoin. Mid-sized cryptocurrencies are experiencing significant gains – NEAR, HYPE, Grass, ZEC, and Venice Token have all seen substantial increases – and this growth isn’t tied to Bitcoin’s performance. We’re also seeing increased investment in altcoin ETFs (like XRP, HYPE, and SOL), which is creating a solid, long-term demand for cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. The fact that Bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market has dropped below 60% is a clear sign that money is starting to move into these alternative assets.

Over the next two days, Bitcoin is expected to trade within a fairly stable range of $76,500 to $78,000. We’re also seeing continued gains among mid-sized cryptocurrencies. While money is still leaving Bitcoin ETFs, the rate of these outflows is slowing down. The key now isn’t *whether* ETFs will see inflows again, but *when*. Positive ETF flows would be a strong sign that Bitcoin is moving from a period of stabilization into a recovery.

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2026-05-22 21:21