**[Bitwise CIO Expresses Optimism About NEAR: Annual Revenue from Intents Estimated at $45 Million]** Golden Finance reported on October 7 that, according to a memo released by Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, he has identified NEAR as one of the few crypto assets that combine a grand vision with real-world business operations. Hougan noted that NEAR surged 198% in the third quarter, compared to Bitcoin's 43% increase and Ethereum's 71% rise during the same period. NEAR is positioned as a "blockchain born for AI," founded by AI researcher Illia Polosukhin, who co-authored the 2017 paper *"Attention Is All You Need."* The NEAR blockchain launched in 2020 and is reportedly capable of processing up to 1 million transactions per second in a testing environment. Hougan stated that NEAR's Intents product has surpassed $30 billion in cumulative transaction volume and is expected to generate approximately $45 million in fees this year, a portion of which will be returned to token holders through buybacks. He believes that even if AI agents do not become mainstream, NEAR still has independent business support, with its AI vision being an "additional bonus."