NEAR Protocol’s push to automate expansion has triggered a surge in its token price.

NEAR Protocol is preparing to launch dynamic resharding in June, an upgrade that will allow the blockchain to automatically expand capacity by adding shards in response to rising demand, removing the need for manual coordination.

The Layer-1 network’s upcoming release is aimed at making scaling fully autonomous, reinforcing its long-term goal of building a high-performance, highly scalable blockchain. The announcement has been well received by the market, with NEAR’s token surging more than 27% over the past 24 hours to around $2.25.

In a post on X, the protocol described the upgrade, stating: “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 vision of “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, similar to multiple checkout lanes in a supermarket that help handle higher customer traffic efficiently.

Previously, increasing shard capacity on NEAR required a manual process involving validator coordination, governance approval, 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 network will automatically split it and redistribute workload across additional validators, removing the need for human intervention.

NEAR explained the change, noting: “Adding shards has required a full protocol upgrade: weeks of validator coordination, a vote, a staged rollout. Dynamic resharding makes it automatic: a shard hits a state size threshold, splits deterministically, and is validated by state witnesses with no human intervention.”

The upgrade is also seen as a key step toward supporting an emerging AI-driven on-chain economy, where autonomous agents and bots are expected to generate increasing levels of transaction activity.

In addition to scalability improvements, NEAR is introducing post-quantum-safe signing as part of the same upgrade. The feature is designed to protect the network against potential future threats from quantum computing, which researchers warn could eventually compromise existing cryptographic systems.

Concerns around quantum computing stem from the possibility that sufficiently powerful machines could break current encryption standards used in blockchain networks.

By integrating quantum-resistant cryptography, NEAR aims to strengthen long-term security and safeguard user assets against future 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-driven rally. In contrast, Bitcoin BTC $75,547.11 fell 0.4% to around $77,360 during the same period.

Additional support for NEAR has come from institutional interest in Europe, particularly through the Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP. According to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley, the product attracted around $7 million in inflows this week, signaling growing demand for exposure to the network.

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