By: Ma He, Foresight News
On June 11th, NEAR Protocol officially launched the Near@3.33 Milestone Incentive Program. This program is designed for users of the Confidential Intents private cross-chain execution function. When the total TVL of Confidential Intents reaches $70 million, a snapshot will be triggered, and the first round of 333,333 milestone tokens will be distributed to eligible accounts.
With airdrops generally being shelved by project teams and token prices remaining low in the bear market, is NEAR making another big move in the privacy space?
Airdrop Details
According to the official announcement, the first round will distribute 333,333 milestone tokens. When the aggregated TVL of Confidential Intents reaches $70 million, the system will automatically take a snapshot and allocate tokens to eligible accounts. Users' past activities will continue to be counted towards the allocation weight until the snapshot occurs; newly joined users can still gain a higher share by increasing their activity on the platform.
The specific eligibility threshold requires users to have conducted Confidential transactions on near.com. The Confidential balance must remain above $100 (in any asset), and holdings and transaction activities exceeding the threshold will affect the final allocation ratio. A single wallet can receive a maximum of 2% of the current airdrop pool.
Currently, according to the latest data from Dune's dashboard, NEAR's Confidential Intents total TVL has exceeded $20.69 million, meaning it needs to grow another 3 times to reach the airdrop threshold.
The NEAR milestone tokens will be locked upon receipt and cannot be sold or transferred. They can only be converted into NEAR tokens at a 1:1 ratio when the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of NEAR tokens remains at or above $3.33 for three consecutive trading days.
The official statement also indicates that subsequent rounds of incentive programs will be launched gradually. The trigger conditions for each round will increase correspondingly with the growth of community activity, continuously encouraging higher levels of participation.
Confidential Intents
Confidential Intents is the privacy execution layer of the NEAR Intents protocol, officially launched in late February 2026. It is not a simple coin mixer or post-hoc anonymization tool but builds confidentiality directly into the execution environment, allowing users to achieve limited visibility when conducting cross-chain transactions.
Confidential Intents is initially operated by decentralized permissioned validators and connects to the NEAR mainnet via a bridge based on Trusted Execution Environments (TEE).
Issues like MEV, front-running, strategy leaks, and forced liquidations have long plagued DeFi players on public chains. Confidential Intents avoids these risks from the source through sharded execution: retail users no longer lose value to sandwich attacks, large holders can execute substantial operations without exposing their intent, institutions can protect their positions and negotiation information while retaining selective disclosure capabilities to meet compliance and audit needs. Enterprise application scenarios include confidential handling of sensitive operations such as salary payments, treasury management, and supply chain payments.
Since its launch, according to official NEAR and community data, the TVL of Confidential Intents has grown from zero to approximately $15 million in about three months.
The product addresses real needs, and the incentives will also boost user participation and activity. For Confidential Intents to reach the $70 million target, perhaps under the ongoing wave of AI and privacy narratives, it might have a chance to achieve it in the second half of this year.
Previously, the NEAR token price surged under the AI narrative from around $1 in April this year to a high of $3.08, currently fluctuating around $2. When the crypto market conditions improve and liquidity becomes more abundant, the locked milestone tokens will convert into fully liquid NEAR tokens.
