NEAR Protocol's Chain Signature launch could kick-start another leg for NEAR price

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) has seen recent buzz around its community after launching on Tuesday Chain Signatures, a multi-party computation network. With the excitement surrounding the AI token following the popularity of NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang's touch on Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, Chain Signatures may prove a powerful narrative to push NEAR's price up.

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Chain Signatures could support NEAR price rally

NEAR's price, alongside many other AI tokens, saw huge gains in the past weeks following anticipation for NVIDIA's AI Conference. As a leader in the AI tokens category, NEAR has posted over a 100% gain month-on-month. While its price has experienced major corrections in the last few days, the AI protocol could record gains with the launch of its Chain Signatures feature on Tuesday.

Announced at BUIDL Asia in Seoul, the newly launched Chain Signature uses an "account-based decentralized Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network, allowing NEAR accounts to control multiple addresses on various chains and ensuring that the users are the only ones who can request signatures for transactions," said NEAR.

As a result, "Chain Signatures MPC network functions as a decentralized signer for NEAR accounts and smart contracts, managing requests to addresses on different blockchains while placing zero burden on the user to manage these."

This implies that with a NEAR account, users can, for example, use their Bitcoin (BTC) to provide liquidity to a protocol on top of Ethereum without going through third-party bridges.

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Chain Signatures "currently supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos chains, DogeCoin, and XRP Ledger and will soon support Solana, TON Network, Polkadot, and others." This comes off the back of NEAR Protocol's Chain abstraction goal to abstract blockchain complexities away for everyday web3 users.

"Jensen Touch" sparks AI/Blockchain narrative within NEAR's community

Additionally, the NEAR community on X has been buzzing following the launch of a Proof of Touch NFT announced on Near Protocol's X account on Tuesday. The NFT features an image from a panel session at NVIDIA's GTC 2024, where the AI giant's CEO, Jensen Huang, touched the hands of Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol.

Combined with Chain Signatures, "Jensen Touch" could be the narrative that kick-starts another rally for NEAR. "In the future, there will no longer be partnerships, just touches." commented one X user. Another commented, "this is the best intersection of AI/Blockchain."

On the daily chart, NEAR consolidated after an impulsive move that saw it reach a high of $9.01 on March 15. Considering the ongoing narrative, NEAR price could shoot up 18.5% from the current price of $7.60 and tackle the recently setup local to top $9.01. If the bullish momentum for the AI-themed altcoin remains strong it could eye a retest of the $10 psychological level as well.

NEAR/USDT 1-day chart

Regardless of the narratives, investors need to exercise caution due to Bitcoin’s predicament. If BTC takes a small dip, altcoins could see a steep correction, NEAR price included.