Do you still remember $NEAR and $ICP? both were once among the hottest names at launch ,positioned as next-gen infrastructure, backed by large funding rounds, strong narratives, and expectations to become the foundation for the next generation of applications. $ICP created a major wave with the “Internet Computer” vision ,full-stack on-chain, with extremely ambitious goals. $NEAR took its own path, focusing on scalability, developer experience, and onboarding Web2 users. After the initial hype phase, both entered a longer cycle ,building, iterating, and searching for product-market fit quietly. Lately, I’ve been paying attention to a group of projects that the market often overlooks… $NEAR and $ICP both fall into the category of long-term builders, heavy tech, long development cycles ,yet sentiment around them remains relatively weak. What’s interesting is that both are focusing on the same layer: compute + infrastructure + environment for applications to actually run. While most of the current AI narrative sits at the application layer, demand for the underlying infrastructure continues to grow alongside adoption. $ICP is pushing toward a full-stack on-chain approach, where applications can run directly on the network. $NEAR is focusing on abstraction and distribution, making the ecosystem easier for users and developers to access. These are difficult directions, with long build cycles ,and they rarely generate immediate attention. The market usually prioritizes simple narratives first, and only returns to pricing infrastructure once demand becomes more visible. Personally, I rate $NEAR higher at the moment, thanks to its clearer direction around UX and distribution. $ICP still has its own thesis, but I see it as a case that needs further observation ,particularly in terms of execution and its ability to attract real users....

$ICP > $NEAR??? no way