BSC Mainnet Fermi Hard Fork Set for January 14, 2026

• Fermi fork cuts BSC block time to 250ms and requires validator upgrades for stability.
• Update drops handshake, adds fee limits, and light indexing to improve coordination speed.
• Faster confirmations aid DeFi execution and reduce slippage risks on time-sensitive use.

BNB Smart Chain will activate the Fermi hard fork on its mainnet on January 14, 2026, at 02:30 AM UTC. The upgrade applies across the BSC mainnet and involves validators, builders, and node operators. It follows about two months of testing and reduces block intervals, aiming to support time-sensitive applications through faster confirmations and updated coordination rules.

Fermi Activation Details and Required Validator Upgrades

The Fermi hard fork will activate on the BSC mainnet at a fixed block time on January 14, 2026. According to BNB community documentation, the network requires all validators and builders to upgrade beforehand. The supported software versions are v1.6.4 and v1.6.5, and both will work when the upgrade goes live.

That said, the BSC team recommends v1.6.5 for node operators. It includes performance improvements designed to work better with the faster block times. Validators who don’t update in time could lose their ability to produce blocks and take part in validation.

Version 1.6.5 also adds an optional cap on transaction gas fees. This gives validators more control over fees during busy periods and helps prevent sudden spikes as blocks are produced more quickly.

The release removes the handshake mechanism from the BSC protocol. This change simplifies node-to-node communication and reduces overhead during peer connections. According to BSC documentation, simpler connections support stability as block frequency increases.

The update also improves filtermaps checkpoints. These checkpoints help nodes sync more smoothly and keep the blockchain’s data accurate. Together, the updates get validators ready to work more closely under the shorter block times.

Faster Blocks, Voting Changes, and DeFi Execution

The main change in the Fermi upgrade is cutting block time from 750 milliseconds down to 250 milliseconds. According to the BNB community’s GitHub page, this change targets applications needing sub-second confirmations. These include certain DeFi strategies, on-chain trading systems, and liquidation mechanisms.

Shorter block intervals allow transactions to reach finality more quickly. However, faster production increases communication demands between validators. To address this, the Fermi upgrade introduces extended voting parameters across the validator set.

These parameters compensate for the communication lag that can occur at higher block frequencies. According to documentation, the changes help maintain consensus stability as blocks arrive more frequently. This adjustment becomes critical when confirmation windows shrink.

Block time plays a big role in how smoothly DeFi trades and updates go through. When blocks take longer to process, trades can slip and execute at worse prices, especially during busy periods.

According to BSC Scan, BNB Chain currently handles about 222 transactions per second in real-world conditions. However, Chainspect data places the network’s theoretical maximum at 6,349 TPS. This gap shows how confirmation speed, not just throughput, affects user experience.

Related: How the Fusaka Upgrade Will Transform Ethereum’s Scalability and Layer-2 Costs

Indexing Changes and Network Throughput Context

Along with faster block times, the Fermi hard fork introduces a new way of indexing data. This lets users access only the blockchain information they need instead of downloading the entire history. BNB Chain’s documentation says this cuts down on computing power and storage needs.

Because of this, analytics firms, node operators, and other services can run with lighter setups, and using fewer resources can also make it easier for more participants to join the network. The update helps the network grow without changing how it fundamentally works.

BNB Smart Chain launched in 2020 and now runs under a validator-based system. Recent Nansen data shows active addresses close to 2.9 million, a level similar to other fast networks like Solana. 

Even so, public blockchains still don’t match the transaction speeds of traditional payment systems. Visa processes roughly 1,700 transactions per second on average, according to Phemex. Legacy payment rails also provide near-instant settlement for merchants.

BNB Chain has pursued incremental performance upgrades to narrow this gap. The Maxwell hard fork, which was implemented in June, reduced average block times to about 0.8 seconds. Earlier, the Lorentz upgrade focused on efficiency improvements across test networks.

These upgrades set the stage for Fermi’s more aggressive block reduction. Each update fine-tunes how the network runs instead of adding new features. Together, they focus on faster performance, better coordination, and improved efficiency.

The Fermi hard fork is scheduled for January 14, 2026, at 02:30 AM UTC on the BSC mainnet. It will shorten block times, adjust how validators coordinate, and add lighter indexing options. Validators will need to update their software to stay active, making sure the network runs smoothly under the faster block setup.