Bitwise Asset Management's proposed NEAR exchange-traded fund cleared two regulatory thresholds in late September, after NYSE Arca approved its listing application and the SEC declared the product's S-1 registration effective on Sept. 24, 2026, according to filings on EDGAR.

A Form 8-A filed Sept. 24 records the NYSE Arca approval for shares trading under the ticker NRR. A separate SEC notice establishes the effectiveness of the offering registration. The exchange action governs listing; the SEC notice governs the registration of the securities themselves. Bitwise's initial S-1 was submitted on May 6, 2025.

What does the prospectus set out?

The final prospectus, also filed Sept. 24, describes a trust that will hold NEAR directly rather than through derivatives, allowing brokerage clients to acquire exposure without wallet custody. Bitwise wrote in a Sept. 25 post: "The future is near," followed by the date "09/29/2026." The post did not explicitly announce a first trading session.

Key terms from the prospectus:

• 0.75% annual management fee on the trust's NEAR holdings
• 100% staking target, subject to liquidity and operational exceptions
• 33% of staking rewards allocated to staking agents, custodian and sponsor
• Approximately 67% of rewards retained by the trust
• Coinbase Custody as token custodian; BNY Mellon as administrator and cash custodian

The trust will publish its staked percentage at the start of each trading day on its website.

How will staking rewards flow through the fund?

The structure embeds staking directly into the product. Staking rewards accrue as additional NEAR, of which roughly two-thirds remain with the trust after deduction of validator, custody and sponsor charges. Investors therefore receive a blended return: NEAR price movement plus net staking yield, less the management fee.

Bitwise has not framed the staking economics as guaranteed. The prospectus permits unstaked balances to cover redemptions, expenses and an adjustable liquidity reserve, so the realized staked share will fluctuate below 100% in normal operations.

What liquidity constraints apply?

Unstaking imposes a delay. According to the prospectus, unstaked NEAR is non-transferable for two to four epochs, each targeted at roughly 12 hours. In practice, the trust may face a 24-to-48-hour gap between initiating an unstake and accessing tokens, creating a redemption-mismatch window the prospectus flags as a risk.

That dynamic sets a structural floor on the liquidity buffer NRR must maintain, and gives the sponsor an operational lever during stress events.

What does the timing mean for investors?

The Sept. 29 flag from Bitwise is the only issuer-specified reference point. NYSE Arca listing approval and SEC effectiveness do not by themselves start trading; customary steps — including an assigned listing date and confirmation of seed capital — still apply. The convergence of the post date with the registration effective date suggests a launch window has been coordinated, but the prospectus does not commit to that date.

Market data from CoinGecko, updated at 7:10 a.m. ET on Sept. 28, showed NEAR up 19.85% over seven days, while bitcoin fell 1.98% and ether fell 2.33% over the same period. Over 24 hours, all three declined: NEAR lost 2.70%, bitcoin 2.26% and ether 1.78%. Those returns describe price action around the filings; the filings are not framed as a causal driver.

What changes in the broader staking-ETF landscape?

NRR follows the structural template set by recent spot Ether ETFs that incorporate staking, extending the model to a non-EVM Layer 1 token. Coinbase Custody's appointment as both token custodian and staking agent consolidates operational responsibility with one vendor, a pattern issuers have favored to compress operational risk.

The test will come at redemption: whether the 24-to-48-hour unstaking lag proves workable under episodic outflows, and whether the 67% net reward share, after the 0.75% management fee, sustains competitive net-of-fee yield against direct staking alternatives.