BNB Chain has made a significant announcement regarding the development of a new Layer 1 blockchain, targeting transaction speeds below 50 milliseconds and throughput exceeding 100,000 transactions per second. This ambitious project will see the testnet launched by late 2026, with the mainnet expected to follow in early 2027.
To put this into perspective, the current BNB Smart Chain recently achieved a block time of 0.45 seconds following the Fermi hard fork. The new blockchain aims to be approximately nine times faster than this, serving as a complementary platform for agentic trading, which involves AI-powered trading systems that can execute thousands of trades autonomously without human involvement.
This new Layer 1 solution will enhance BNB Chain's existing architecture, which already includes BNB Smart Chain for general smart contract applications, opBNB for Layer 2 scaling, and Greenfield for decentralized storage. By establishing a high-performance trading chain, BNB aims to create a robust four-pillar framework, where each component is optimized for specialized functions.
While the rapid transaction pre-confirmation time of under 50 milliseconds sounds impressive, it is important to clarify that this refers to the acknowledgment of transactions rather than final settlement, which will take slightly longer.
What is the future promise of BNB Chain’s Tech Roadmap?
The initiative to launch this new Layer 1 blockchain is just a segment of a broader 2026 Tech Roadmap outlined by BNB Chain. The initial objectives focus on enhancing the existing BSC capabilities to handle up to 20,000 transactions per second with nearly instantaneous finality, leveraging parallel execution and other optimizations.
Looking forward, the company envisions a next-generation trading chain designed to support around 1 million transactions per second, utilizing what they term a hybrid compute architecture. This bold aspiration extends timelines from 2026 to 2028.
The Fermi hard fork has already made strides, reducing BSC block times to 0.45 seconds and offering a finality period close to 1.1 seconds. Furthermore, BNB Chain reported zero downtime throughout 2025, with daily transaction peaks hitting a remarkable 31 million.
How does BNB Chain compare to other blockchain platforms?
The realm of Layer 1 performance is intensely competitive. Platforms like Solana frequently promote their capabilities to handle thousands of transactions per second under real-world conditions. Similarly, Sui and Aptos claim sub-second finality. In contrast, Monad, which is yet to launch, aims for 10,000 transactions per second on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain.
If BNB Chain can achieve its target of 100,000 transactions per second, it would position itself ahead of current competitors on paper. However, the challenge remains to see if the ambitious benchmarks in testnet can translate into viable performance on the mainnet. The forthcoming testnet launch in late 2026 will serve as the crucial test of whether these engineering aspirations become a practical reality.