NEAR Protocol is set to roll out dynamic resharding in June, an upgrade that will let the blockchain automatically scale its capacity by adding new shards as demand increases, without requiring manual intervention.
The Layer-1 network’s latest upgrade is designed to make scaling fully autonomous, reinforcing its goal of building a high-performance, highly scalable blockchain infrastructure. The announcement was well received by markets, with NEAR’s token jumping more than 27% over the past 24 hours to about $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 advances its vision of “the world’s most scalable blockchain protocol at the highest level of performance.”
Shards are smaller, independent segments of a blockchain that process transactions and smart contracts in parallel, similar to multiple checkout lanes in a supermarket handling customer flow more efficiently.
Until now, expanding shard capacity on NEAR required a manual, coordination-heavy process involving validators, governance voting, and staged network upgrades that could take weeks to implement.
With dynamic resharding, that process becomes automated. When a shard reaches a certain usage threshold, the network will automatically split it and redistribute workload across additional validators, removing the need for human coordination.
NEAR described the mechanism as a shift from manual upgrades to automatic scaling, where shard splitting is triggered deterministically once capacity limits are reached, with validation handled through state witnesses and no operator intervention required.
The upgrade is also positioned as an important step toward supporting an AI-driven on-chain economy, where autonomous agents and bots are expected to generate significantly higher transaction volumes.
Alongside scaling improvements, NEAR is introducing post-quantum-safe signing as part of the same upgrade. The feature aims to prepare the network for future risks from quantum computing, which researchers warn could eventually undermine current cryptographic systems.
These concerns stem from the possibility that sufficiently advanced quantum machines could break widely used encryption methods, prompting blockchain networks to adopt more resilient security standards.
By integrating quantum-resistant cryptography, NEAR aims to enhance long-term network security and protect user assets against future computational threats.
NEAR’s native token has been the strongest performer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization over the past 24 hours, fueled by the upgrade-driven rally. In contrast, Bitcoin BTC $75,547.11 slipped 0.4% to around $77,360 during the same period.
Further momentum has also come from institutional demand in Europe, particularly through the Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP, which attracted about $7 million in inflows this week, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley.
