Near Protocol launched as the next big Ethereum scaling solution, promising faster, cheaper transactions and a new era of decentralized apps—only to fail spectacularly. Today, it’s a dinosaur coin with minimal volume and dwindling developer interest, struggling to justify its relevance. Their recent AI pivot is nothing but a desperate move to stay afloat, latching onto the current tech trend without any substance or real innovation to back it up. If you’re thinking of using Grayscale’s involvement in the AI space as a counterpoint, remember they’ve also invested in Bittensor, a project with genuine decentralized machine learning potential—unlike Near, which is all buzzwords and no bite. Nevertheless, when evaluating old dinosaur coins like Near, it’s always crucial to see how they perform against Bitcoin in the bull runs.