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The information contained in this Crypto Asset Statement was last updated on March 27, 2026.

No securities regulatory authority in Canada has expressed an opinion about NEAR or any of the other Crypto Contracts or Crypto Assets made available through Newton Crypto Ltd. (Newton) on the Newton Platform, including an opinion that NEAR itself is not a security and/or derivative.  Changes to applicable law may adversely affect the use, transfer, exchange, or value of any of your crypto assets, and such changes may be sudden and without notice.

Newton is offering Crypto Contracts in reliance on a prospectus exemption contained in the exemptive relief decision Re Newton Crypto Ltd. dated March 25, 2026. The statutory rights of action for damages and the right of rescission in section 130.1 of the Securities Act (Ontario) and similar legislation in the other provinces and territories of Canada would not apply in respect of a misrepresentation in this Crypto Asset Statement or the Newton Platform Risk Statement.

This overview provides a summary of certain risks associated with NEAR and is not an exhaustive description or summary of these risks and, in addition, does not take into account an individual’s particular situation or risk tolerance. Investors are encouraged to conduct their own research prior to trading any crypto asset.

Newton users should read the Newton Platform Risk Statement for additional discussion of general risks associated with crypto assets made available through the Newton Platform. A copy of the Newton Platform Risk Statement acknowledged by you is available in your account in the “Statements & Reports” section.

Token Description & Project Background

The primary purpose of NEAR Protocol is to provide a robust and developer-friendly platform for building decentralized applications. The project addresses the scalability trilemma, which highlights the difficulty of achieving scalability, security, and decentralization simultaneously. NEAR Protocol is designed to balance these three pillars, allowing developers to create applications that deliver high performance, strong security, and an accessible user experience. NEAR is the native token of the NEAR Protocol blockchain, and is used for purposes such as staking to help secure the network, paying transaction and storage fees, and participating in on-chain governance. 

Key Features and Technological Aspects of NEAR

• Sharding: NEAR Protocol employs a dynamic sharding architecture to enhance scalability. The network is divided into independent subsets called shards, which process transactions and execute smart contracts in parallel. This structure enables the network to increase throughput as demand grows and helps achieve near-instant finality for most transactions.

• Nightshade Consensus Mechanism: NEAR Protocol utilizes a unique consensus mechanism called Nightshade, which combines proof-of-stake (PoS) and thresholded proof-of-stake (TPoS) algorithms. This hybrid consensus mechanism enhances security and decentralization while minimizing the energy consumption associated with traditional proof-of-work (PoW) systems.

• User Experience and Onboarding: NEAR emphasizes simplicity and accessibility for both users and developers. The protocol supports human-readable account names and provides extensive documentation, intuitive tooling, and a streamlined development environment. Developers can build applications using familiar programming languages such as Rust, AssemblyScript, and TypeScript. This lowers technical barriers to entry and encourages broader participation from the developer community.

• Ecosystem and Partnerships: NEAR Protocol actively fosters an ecosystem of developers, projects, and partnerships. Through grants, investments, and support programs, NEAR Protocol encourages developers to build innovative dApps on the platform. The project has formed strategic partnerships with prominent companies and projects such as Decentraland, Chainlink, and Flux to expand its reach and enable interoperability with other blockchain networks.

Risks of NEAR

Like an investment in other crypto assets, an investment in NEAR includes the following general risks: (i) volatility risk and liquidity risk, (ii) short history risk, (iii) demand risk, (iv) forking risk, (v) code defects, (vi) regulatory risk, (vii) electronic trading risk, and (viii) cyber security risk.

For additional information of general risks associated with crypto assets, you may refer to the Newton Platform Risk Statement.  In terms of specific risks, as NEAR is one of the longest-standing crypto assets and its community base is widely decentralized, there is no central working group or authority to disclose material information to the public regarding NEAR.

Please note that these risks and the associated summaries or overviews provided for each herein are not intended to be an exhaustive discussion pertaining to all such risks and, in addition, there may be other risks that come with exposure to NEAR.  We encourage all Newton users to perform their own due diligence to assess the risks associated with NEAR and to determine whether this level of risk is acceptable to them.  Neither NEAR nor Newton guarantees the value of NEAR, and holders of NEAR will not have any recourse to NEAR or Newton if the value of NEAR declines for any reason whatsoever.

Newton’s Evaluation Process

Newton has reviewed and assessed NEAR prior to making it available on the Newton Platform and has concluded that NEAR is not a security or derivative under Canadian securities legislation; however, there is a risk that this conclusion could change in the future and that, in such event, Newton will be required to halt, suspend, and then remove NEAR from its Platform as described in the Newton Platform Risk Statement.

Further, as indicated above, no Canadian securities regulatory authority has expressed an opinion about NEAR, including an opinion that NEAR is not itself a security and/or derivative.

Based on publicly available information Newton has reviewed NEAR, including, but not limited to, a review of the following:

• The creation, governance, usage, and design of NEAR, including the source code, security, and roadmap for growth in the developer community and, if applicable, the background of the developer(s) that created NEAR.
• The supply, demand, maturity, utility, and liquidity of NEAR.
• Material technical risks associated with NEAR, including any code defects, security breaches and other threats concerning NEAR and its supporting blockchain (such as the susceptibility to hacking and impact of forking), or the practices and protocols that apply to them.
• Legal and regulatory risks associated with NEAR, including (i) any pending, potential, or prior civil, regulatory, criminal, or enforcement action relating to the issuance, distribution, or use of NEAR, and (ii) statements made by any securities regulatory authorities in Canada, other regulators in IOSCO-member jurisdictions, or the regulator with the most significant connection to NEAR about whether NEAR, or generally about whether the type of crypto asset, is a security and/or derivative.

A link to the NEAR Protocol White Paper is available at the following link.