Near is very hype because there is an airdrop that uses NEAR as one of the tokens that can be used to upgrade equipment in the airdrop. Digital currency technology will always be created including the development of this NEAR project. We just need to make good use of this coin to get as much profit as possible.
I'm not aware of any airdrops within the Near ecosystem. Perhaps it happened back in 2020 or during the recent wave of new projects but didn't really stand out in the media, especially when many airdrops from L2 ecosystems and Solana were mentioned and became quite popular. Near's most recent major update was related to NEAR ETP from Valour and NEAR AI, although it doesn't seem to have had any significant impact on the NEAR price in the market.
Anyway, Near is now focusing on AI, users can even access Near AI directly from the project's homepage, and NEAR is also included in the Grayscale AI Fund. I hope Near will be chosen by more investors in the market, attract more users, and most importantly, NEAR price will increase to bring profits to those who have always supported this project.