NEAR Jumps 27% After Unveiling June "Dynamic Resharding" Upgrade to Scale Automatically

NEAR Protocol outlined a major network upgrade designed to let the blockchain scale automatically, sparking a sharp market rally. The NEAR token climbed more than 27% in the past 24 hours to around $2.25 after the team said an automated scaling feature known as "dynamic resharding" is set to go live in June. Dynamic resharding is built around "shards," independent partitions of the blockchain that process transactions and smart contracts in parallel. More shards generally mean higher throughput. Until now, expanding NEAR's shard count took weeks of manual coordination, including validator alignment, a governance vote, and a phased rollout. Under the new system, the network will automatically split a shard once it hits a state-size threshold. The split is deterministic and validated by state witnesses, eliminating the need for human intervention. NEAR also plans to add additional parallel validators to manage higher load rather than simply dividing a shard in two. The upgrade is positioned to help NEAR respond in real time to demand spikes, a feature the team says is particularly relevant for an AI-driven on-chain economy where bots and automated agents may transact at high frequency. It also introduces post-quantum-safe signing aimed at protecting user funds against future quantum computing risks, as research in recent years has highlighted the possibility that sufficiently powerful quantum machines could weaken today's cryptographic systems. Following the announcement, NEAR was the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 by market capitalization over the past 24 hours. The move has also been supported by demand for the Bitwise Near Staking ETP in Europe, which attracted roughly $7 million this week, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. Over the same period, Bitcoin slipped about 0.4% to roughly $77,360. NEAR's June upgrade is intended to make the protocol self-scaling and more future-proof, with investors focusing on potential gains in throughput and security.