Automation of growth at Near Protocol is driving its token into a sharp upswing

NEAR Protocol is preparing to launch dynamic resharding in June, a major upgrade that will allow the blockchain to automatically expand capacity by adding new shards as demand rises, eliminating the need for manual coordination.

The Layer-1 network’s update is aimed at enabling fully autonomous scaling, reinforcing its long-term vision of building a high-performance blockchain infrastructure. The announcement has been met with strong market interest, with NEAR’s token surging more than 27% over the past 24 hours to around $2.25.

In a post on X, the protocol said: “Dynamic resharding is coming to NEAR. The upcoming network upgrade will enable the protocol to add shards automatically as demand grows,” adding that it supports its goal of becoming “the world’s most scalable blockchain protocol at the highest level of performance.”

Shards are independent partitions of a blockchain that process transactions and smart contracts in parallel, much like multiple checkout lanes in a supermarket that allow higher throughput during peak demand.

Previously, increasing shard capacity on NEAR required a manual, coordination-heavy process involving validators, governance votes, and staged network upgrades that could take weeks to complete.

With dynamic resharding, that process becomes automated. When a shard reaches a predefined capacity threshold, the protocol will automatically split it and redistribute workload across additional validators, removing the need for human intervention.

NEAR described the upgrade as a shift to fully automated scaling, where shard splits occur deterministically once usage limits are hit, with validation handled through state witnesses rather than coordinated operator action.

The upgrade is also expected to support an emerging AI-driven on-chain economy, where autonomous agents and bots generate significantly higher levels of transaction activity.

Alongside scalability improvements, NEAR is introducing post-quantum-safe signing as part of the same upgrade. The feature is designed to prepare the network for potential future threats from quantum computing, which researchers warn could eventually break current cryptographic standards.

The concern stems from the possibility that sufficiently advanced quantum machines could undermine widely used encryption methods, prompting blockchain networks to adopt stronger, future-proof security systems.

By integrating quantum-resistant cryptography, NEAR aims to strengthen long-term network security and protect user assets against emerging computational risks.

NEAR’s native token has been the strongest performer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization over the past 24 hours, driven by the upgrade-led rally. In contrast, Bitcoin BTC $75,547.11 fell 0.4% to around $77,360 over the same period.

Additional momentum has also come from institutional demand in Europe, particularly via the Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP, which attracted about $7 million in inflows this week, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley.