NEAR token rallied after the protocol detailed an upcoming network upgrade focused on automatic scaling. NEAR rose more than 27% over the past 24 hours to $2.25, with traders reacting to plans for dynamic resharding scheduled for June.
In a post on X, the project said the upgrade will let the network add shards automatically as demand grows. The change targets a core bottleneck in blockchain throughput. Instead of relying on a fixed structure for long periods, the protocol is designed to expand capacity when usage starts to build.
Adding shards will no longer depend on a slow manual process
Shards are smaller partitions of a blockchain that can process transactions and smart contracts in parallel. That structure gives networks a way to handle more activity than systems that rely on a single processing path. On NEAR, though, opening a new partition has until now been a slow operational task, requiring weeks of validator coordination, a vote, and a staged rollout.
The June upgrade is meant to remove that delay. NEAR said dynamic resharding will make the process automatic: once a shard reaches a state size threshold, it splits deterministically and is validated by state witnesses, with no human intervention. In practical terms, the network would be able to react to higher demand on its own rather than waiting for governance and manual coordination to catch up.
NEAR ties the feature to AI-driven onchain activity
The protocol also framed the upgrade as a base layer feature for an AI-led onchain economy. Its explanation pointed to a setting where bots transact and conduct business with each other, a model that could require infrastructure to absorb bursts of activity without operator action. NEAR did not provide usage projections, but the message was clear: the upgrade is aimed at automated, high-frequency blockchain activity as much as traditional scaling needs.
Upgrade also includes post-quantum-safe signing
Scaling is not the only change in the package. NEAR said it will also add post-quantum-safe signing, a security measure that responds to growing concern in the developer community over future quantum computing risks.
Those concerns intensified after Google researchers warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer might be able to break today’s blockchains with much less power than previously expected. NEAR said the new signing approach is intended to protect user funds from that long-term threat by hardening the network before those machines become practical.