TL;DR:
- NEAR Protocol launched Universal Send, a cross-chain payment tool that combines bridging, swapping and settlement in a single transaction.
- This feature hides sender data and transferred amounts from public explorers, a privacy model comparable to Zcash but multichain.
- NEAR rose 11.76% in the last 24 hours and trades at $2.61, with a volume of over $853 million and a market cap of $3.38 billion.
NEAR Protocol launched Universal Send, a cross-chain payment tool that allows sending any token to any compatible blockchain in a single transaction. The system combines bridging, swapping and settlement in one action, without exposing the sender or transferred amounts on public explorers. The launch boosted the network’s token price, which rose 11.76% in the last 24 hours to reach $2.61, with a volume exceeding $853 million and a market capitalization of approximately $3.38 billion.
Universal Send uses NEAR Intents, the protocol’s intent-based execution layer, which has accumulated over $18 billion in volume. The user flow is as follows: a QR code is scanned, the token is chosen and the payment is confirmed. The system resolves the conversion and routing automatically, and the recipient receives the funds in the requested asset regardless of the source chain.
Confidential payments are live on https://t.co/YBUSFVdjxE.
Pay anyone in any asset, on any chain, without exposing your wallet activity.
Introducing Universal Send. pic.twitter.com/nkt0Mxav8A
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) May 28, 2026
NEAR Protocol’s Privacy Layer Competes with Zcash
Settlement is carried out through third parties called “solvers”, external agents that execute the intentions defined by the user and finalize operations on-chain. The protocol describes its privacy model as comparable to single-chain networks like Zcash, though with multichain capabilities. Unlike liquidity bridges such as THORChain, where swaps are visible on-chain and prices depend on pool depth, Universal Send shifts execution off-chain to reduce attack vectors such as MEV and frontrunning.
Criticism of the Intents System
However, the model drew criticism. A 2026 risk assessment by Hindenrank placed NEAR Intents in the moderate risk category, attributing it to the relative novelty of cross-chain verification systems and the dependence on external execution agents. Industry researchers note that the design reduces the on-chain attack surface, but shifts part of the trust toward the honesty of solvers, a variable that is difficult to audit systematically.
Mixers such as Tornado Cash, for their part, offer post-execution transaction history obfuscation without native support for cross-chain settlement, positioning Universal Send as a differentiated product within the ecosystem of blockchain privacy tools.
