BNB Smart Chain readies hard fork upgrade

BNB Smart Chain is set to undergo the "Fermi" hard fork on January 14, 2026, marking a significant leap in network speed and transaction finality.

Fermi Hard Fork: The Quest for 0.45s Blocks

Following the Fourier hard fork on January 7, the Fermi upgrade aims to reduce block intervals from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds. This pushes the network closer to the physical limits of global block propagation while maintaining uptime under heavy load.

BSC Network Performance (Early 2026)

Market Share: Carrying up to 40% of overall on-chain traffic.
Revenue Rank: 4th largest in app revenues, behind Solana, TRON, and Ethereum.
Technical Goal: Support up to 5,000 DEX swaps per second.

Despite the technical progress, the BNB token has faced a short-term pullback below $900, with analysts monitoring liquidity zones around $840 for support and $960 for potential short-squeeze targets.