A new report from Binance Research claims that one Ethereum (ETH<\/a>) competitor ignored the greater crypto market trend and witnessed a surge in activity in the third quarter of this year.<\/p>\n Researchers at the top global crypto exchange by trading volume note that the smart contract platform NEAR Protocol (NEAR<\/a>) clocked 120% quarter-on-quarter growth in terms of average monthly transactions.<\/p>\n Explains<\/a> Binance Research,<\/p>\n \u201cBlockchain activity generally declined across the board in Q3 with a fall in the number of transactions across most blockchains. Notwithstanding that NEAR is starting from a low base, it has witnessed increasing usage driven by top-down partnerships and grassroots initiatives.\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n The researchers also note that NEAR Protocol registered an increase in daily active addresses in a quarter where most smart contract platforms suffered a decrease. The project reached an average of 650,000 daily active addresses and passed both Ethereum and Solana (SOL<\/a>) in terms of that metric in September.<\/p>\n USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, launched<\/a> on NEAR in September, which helped fuel the protocol\u2019s surge in active addresses, according to Binance Research.<\/p>\n NEAR Protocol is focused on scalability and stability. The project aims to allow developers to build decentralized applications at low cost.<\/p>\n The protocol\u2019s native asset, NEAR, is trading at $1.12 at time of writing.<\/p>\n Don’t Miss a Beat \u2013 Subscribe<\/a> to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox <\/span><\/em>
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