NEAR Protocol finalized the second release candidate for its v2.13 upgrade on June 26, 2026, locking in automated shard splitting and ML-DSA-65 post-quantum cryptographic signing. Validators will vote to adopt the changes on testnet beginning June 30 at 00:00 UTC, with the protocol advancing from version 84 to 85. Mainnet activation follows testnet after the standard multi-week cycle.
Dynamic resharding is the primary change. Under the current nine-shard configuration, expanding shard count required planned validator coordination and a governance vote. The v2.13 release candidate removes that: "shards are now split automatically at epoch boundaries based on runtime state size," with individual splits completing in under two seconds, per KuCoin's research note. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin has put the long-term shard target at more than 70, a count the team argues would handle throughput exceeding current Visa-level rates. The stated rationale: AI agents transacting at machine speed can spike demand on individual shards faster than any governance cycle can respond; removing the human step keeps fees stable.
The second feature adds ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204) as a third signature option alongside the existing ed25519 and secp256k1 schemes, per the release candidate notes. ML-DSA-65 is the lattice-based algorithm NIST standardized on August 13, 2024. Account holders can rotate to the quantum-resistant scheme without changing their address. Crypto Times reported that no other major Layer 1 was shipping both automated scaling and NIST-standard quantum-resistant signing in a single release; that claim was not independently confirmed.
NEAR's token moved 27% to 30% in 24 hours after the May 22 announcement of the two features, trading around $2.24 to $2.27, per CryptoBriefing and CoinDesk. Twenty-four-hour trading volume rose 161% to $1.02 billion, and the Bitwise Near Staking ETP drew $7 million in institutional inflows that week, per CoinDesk and Crypto Times.