NEAR Draft Adds ML-DSA-65 Signing Support, Targets Lower Issuance

NEAR Protocol is considering narrower post-quantum signing support for account access keys and transactions while a separate governance draft targets lower annual issuance of the NEAR token (NEAR).

The NEP-645 draft would add ML-DSA-65 as a third transaction-signature scheme alongside Ed25519 and ECDSA. Users would be able to add an ML-DSA-65 access key without changing account creation procedures or migrating existing account state.

The proposal does not cover validator keys, block signatures or implicit-account derivation. Those components remain outside its documented scope, making the measure a targeted change rather than a network-wide quantum upgrade.

A separate governance proposal would reduce NEAR’s maximum annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% through a 24-month ramp. Sal Ternullo of SVRN authored the draft, which remains marked “Draft.” If adopted, the lower issuance rate could also reduce staking rewards for validators.

The signing proposal expands on TokenPost’s previous report about NEAR’s quantum-safe technology.

NEAR Intents recorded $33.444 billion in cumulative decentralized-exchange volume and $4.762 billion in the preceding 30 days as of Oct. 11, 2026. The system had $223.83 million in total value locked and generated $7.85 million in fees and $2.19 million in revenue during that 30-day period. The captured revenue is used for open-market NEAR buybacks rather than token burns.

NEAR closed at $5.29 on Oct. 10, 2026, compared with $4.90 on Oct. 9, an increase of about 7.96% based on daily closing data. The available figures do not establish that the signing proposal caused the move.

The Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR) held 14,256,803.46 NEAR worth $66.72 million as of Oct. 8, 2026. The fund began trading on NYSE Arca on Sept. 29, 2026.