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BNB Chain has successfully activated the Fermi hard fork on the BNB Smart Chain mainnet, reducing block production times from 0.75 seconds to approximately 0.45 seconds.
The upgrade, delivered through the BSC v1.6.4 client release, marks the completion of the network’s multi phase short block interval roadmap and represents its fastest block times to date. Fermi is part of BNB Chain’s broader 2026 technology roadmap, which focuses on improving real world performance while maintaining network stability.
According to BNB Chain, the hard fork strengthens fast finality rules, tightens block production timing, and improves responsiveness under high network load without compromising reliability.
Nina Rong, executive director of growth at BNB Chain, said the upgrade prioritizes predictable performance alongside speed improvements. She noted that enhanced fast finality mechanisms and refined validator coordination rules were introduced to ensure the network remains stable even as blocks are produced more frequently.
To put everything into perspective,
— Nina Rong (@nina_rong) January 14, 2026
- in 2025, BSC processed 4.15B txns...
- if the same amount of txns happens in the rest of 2026
- Fermi will save 1,245,094,897 seconds
- that is 39.5 years saved in block times https://t.co/HVElpkzcZX
Faster Blocks and Stronger Finality
The Fermi hard fork reduces the BSC block interval to 0.45 seconds under BEP 619, delivering faster transaction inclusion and shorter confirmation times for users and applications.
To support this increased pace, BEP 590 introduces extended voting rules for fast finality. These changes help maintain reliable transaction finality as throughput rises and reduce the risk of confirmation delays during periods of congestion.
Fast finality allows transactions to be confirmed with high confidence within a small number of blocks, enabling users and applications to treat transactions as irreversible more quickly. With Fermi, BNB Chain aims to preserve these guarantees even as block frequency increases.
Additional improvements include incremental snapshot handling under BEP 593, a new non consensus based block level access list through BEP 592, and EVM performance enhancements via BEP 610.
Built for Real-Time Applications
BNB Chain designed the Fermi upgrade to support latency-sensitive applications such as onchain trading platforms, real-time DeFi protocols, interactive gaming experiences, and responsive crypto wallets.
The network said the focus was on real-world stability rather than maximum theoretical throughput, ensuring consistent performance during high usage periods driven by DeFi activity, meme coin trading, and heavy wallet usage.
Most existing decentralized applications and smart contracts require no changes to remain compatible. However, developers relying on fixed timing assumptions or polling-based transaction monitoring are encouraged to review their confirmation logic due to the faster block intervals.
Network Activity Remains High
BNB Smart Chain processed approximately 3.89 billion transactions in 2025, ranking second only to Solana in total onchain activity. In 2024, the network processed 4.15 billion transactions.
Rong said that if BSC processes a similar volume this year, the reduced block times introduced by Fermi could save more than 1.24 billion seconds in total block production time, equivalent to roughly 39.5 years.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao acknowledged the upgrade in a brief post on X, writing, “Continue to Build.”
With blocks now produced every 0.45 seconds and transaction finality approaching one second, BNB Chain continues to distinguish itself from Ethereum’s base layer, which produces blocks approximately every 12 seconds. The network remains fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine while approaching the performance levels of faster non-EVM chains like Solana.
Operational Requirements for Validators and Nodes
Validators and node operators were required to upgrade to v1.6.4 or later before the January 14 activation. Following the upgrade, nodes trigger snapshot regeneration and log indexing processes during first startup.
On BNB Chain’s reference hardware, snapshot regeneration takes approximately five hours and may temporarily reduce node performance. The process supports the transition toward incremental snapshot handling, which improves long term operational efficiency.
The v1.6.x client series also introduces a new log indexing mechanism starting from block 59,484,738. Operators can limit indexing to recent history if full archival logs are not required.
Faster block production also places tighter demands on validator infrastructure, particularly in networking, disk I O, and block propagation performance.
Part of a Broader 2026 Roadmap
BNB Chain said Fermi reflects lessons learned from operating the network at scale and represents a shift toward refining everyday performance rather than focusing solely on peak throughput.
As outlined in its 2026 technology roadmap, the network aims to deliver faster execution under real production conditions, predictable performance for applications, and infrastructure that scales without increasing operational complexity.
More upgrades are planned as BNB Chain continues to evolve its performance, reliability, and developer experience to support the next phase of onchain growth.
