Near Protocol is set to introduce dynamic resharding in June, a major upgrade that will allow its blockchain to automatically expand by adding new shards as demand increases, eliminating the need for human intervention.
The market reacted swiftly, sending the native token NEAR up more than 27% in 24 hours to $2.25.
Shards are independent partitions of a blockchain that process transactions in parallel. Previously, adding a shard on Near was a slow, manual process requiring weeks of validator coordination, a vote, and staged rollout. Dynamic resharding automates this: when a shard reaches a state size threshold, it splits automatically.
The protocol says this feature is foundational for an AI-led onchain economy, where bots transact autonomously.
Beyond scaling, Near is also adding post-quantum-safe signing to protect users' funds from future quantum computing threats.
NEAR is the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 coins by market cap over the past 24 hours. The rally is further supported by strong demand for the Bitwise Near Staking ETF in Europe, which pulled in $7 million this week.