BNB Chain upgrades to hard fork Fermi: A breakthrough step in network performance and stability

BNB Chain officially activates the Fermi hard fork on January 14, 2026, marking a significant milestone in performance upgrades since the previous Pascal and Maxwell versions.

With this upgrade, block creation time on the network will decrease from 0.75 seconds to just 0.45 seconds, bringing BNB Smart Chain closer to the top processing speed among major blockchains today.

However, the significance of the event is not only technical. The upgrade occurs at a time when the number of users on BNB Chain is increasing rapidly, approaching the peak recorded during the 2021 bull market, although the total value locked (TVL) remains far from its previous high.

This combination is creating significant pressure on the network.

Users are returning, but capital flow has not yet recovered proportionally

According to data from DefiLlama, the number of active addresses on BNB Chain surged throughout 2025 and early 2026.

The number of daily active addresses has now reached 2 million–3 million, nearly matching the peak during the DeFi boom and retail trading in 2021.

However, the capital supporting these activities has not grown correspondingly.

Source: DefiLlama. TVL of BNB Chain has only recovered modestly, reaching about $7 billion compared to over $20 billion at its peak in 2021. This means the network is serving a much larger user base but with significantly lower liquidity per user.

This imbalance could lead to many risks, including:

This environment is the reason why Fermi was developed and deployed.

Key improvements of the Fermi hard fork on BNB Chain

Fermi introduces a series of protocol improvements to ensure network stability as transaction volume increases.

The highlight of the upgrade is BEP-619, which reduces block creation time from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds, increasing the network’s transaction processing speed by nearly 40%.

Alongside that, BEP-590 strengthens fast confirmation rules, ensuring blocks reach an irreversible state reliably, even as block creation frequency increases. This is a crucial factor for DeFi platforms and trading, which depend on processing speed and network stability.

Why is this upgrade happening now?

BNB Chain has demonstrated its ability to handle large TVL in the past. The current challenge is maintaining high performance as transaction volume surges but liquidity remains thinner.

With millions of users transacting daily, but the locked capital in smart contracts significantly lower than previous cycles, the margin for errors has narrowed.

Incidents such as delays, congestion, or confirmation issues could significantly impact traders, protocols, and consumer applications.

Next steps

Before the hard fork, validators and node operators were required to upgrade to BSC v1.6.4 or newer versions. After the upgrade is complete, nodes will regenerate snapshots and reindex logs upon their first startup.

As activity on the network continues to grow, the success of Fermi will be a crucial test of BNB Chain’s ability to maintain its competitive edge, one of the largest user bases among blockchains today.

Ông Giáo