NEAR Protocol Unveils Post-Quantum Upgrade Amid Bear Market
The NEAR Protocol has made significant strides in its development, becoming one of the first blockchains to implement a NIST-approved post-quantum signature scheme. This upgrade has also launched dynamic resharding, allowing the network to scale automatically.
NEAR is building an open, integrated stack for the agent economy, with a focus on identity, liquidity, private inference, confidential execution, settlement, governance, and economics. The protocol announced this plan in February 2026, marking a structural shift during an ongoing bear market.
The TD Sequential indicator has given a buy signal for NEAR on the 4-hour chart, but analyst Ali Martinez notes that a sell signal was vindicated earlier. As of now, the token's price has declined by 13.5% since forming a local high at $2.06 on July 21st.
The Fibonacci retracement levels show that NEAR rejected prices from $2.80 to $3.00 as coming from the 78.6% retracement zone, aligning with the higher timeframe bearish trend. The bulls have held onto the $1.80-support zone for nearly two months, but the CMF and MACD indicate significant selling pressure.