NEAR, Virtuals and Morpho Lead Market Rally

The crypto market showed a confident recovery at the start of March, returning above $2.4 trillion in total capitalization. Among the top gainers were NEAR Protocol with an impressive 24% rally, Virtuals Protocol adding 18%, and Morpho rising 11%.

NEAR Protocol: +24% on AI Wave

NEAR Protocol showed the strongest performance of the day with a 24% rally, reaching a five-week high of $1.45. The token's weekly gains exceeded 50%. Growth was supported by positive developments in the artificial intelligence sector, to which NEAR is directly connected through its NEAR AI platform.

The platform is actively developing infrastructure for decentralized AI agents, attracting investor attention amid the broader AI enthusiasm in crypto. Analysts note that NEAR remains one of the most technologically mature projects in this niche.

Virtuals Protocol: Agent Revolution

Virtuals Protocol continued to impress the market with agent transactions growing 128% over the past two weeks. In Epoch 2 of its AI revenue incentive program, 3,421 agents participated, generating $2.8 million in agent-to-agent revenue.

Approximately $200,000 was distributed to builders as rewards. This model demonstrates a functioning agent AI economy where autonomous programs independently generate value and revenue.

Morpho: Apollo Global Backing

Morpho rose 11% to $1.97, extending its weekly gains to 25%. Two events served as catalysts: the launch of the OKX Onchain Earn product on the protocol and a deal with Apollo Global Management.

Under a four-year cooperation agreement, Apollo Global with $940 billion in assets under management was authorized to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens — approximately 9% of total supply. This is one of the largest institutional deals in the DeFi sector.

Macroeconomic Context

The crypto market recovery came amid improving macroeconomic indicators. The U.S. ISM manufacturing index exceeded market expectations, fueling optimism about potential Fed rate cuts this year. The return of risk appetite supported a broad range of cryptocurrencies.

Analysts note that the recovery from February's correction appears selective: mainly projects with specific fundamental catalysts are rising, while memecoins and speculative tokens remain under pressure.

What's Next

The sustainability of the recovery will depend on the market's ability to hold capitalization above $2.4 trillion and on further macroeconomic data. For NEAR, the key remains AI ecosystem development, for Virtuals — growth in the active agent base, and for Morpho — integration with traditional financial institutions through Apollo.