BNB Chain’s Fermi Hard Fork Goes Live, Slashing Block Times to 0.45s as Onchain Load Surges
The post BNB Chain’s Fermi Hard Fork Goes Live, Slashing Block Times to 0.45s as Onchain Load Surges appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Key Takeaways: The Fermi hard fork is now live on BNB Smart Chain, cutting block times by 40% to ~0.45 seconds. Fast finality rules were strengthened to keep confirmations reliable as throughput increases. The upgrade targets real-world usage growth, not benchmarks, as onchain activity scales up. The Fermi hard fork has officially activated on BNB Smart Chain, marking one of the network’s most meaningful performance upgrades to date. The change pushes the chain closer to the limits of global block propagation while keeping stability front and center. Read More: opBNB Mainnet Hardfork Slashes Block Time to 250ms, Doubling Speed Across BNB Chain Fermi Goes Live: What Changed on BNB Smart Chain The Fermi hard fork was triggered on block 75,140,593 and was the final step of a series of phases to reduce the block time on BNB Smart Chain. The upgrade will allow reducing the average block times by approximately 0.75 seconds to approximately 0.45 seconds and thus make the network much more responsive under load. This is not an isolated tweak. Fermi is an extension of previous upgrades such as Lorentz, Pascal, Maxwell and so on, whose main emphasis was to enhance the execution speed without compromising the assumptions that developers and users were basing on. In the case of BNB Chain, the vision is straightforward: to achieve faster everyday onchain interactions with a predictable network as the activity increases. The benefits of shorter block times are practical and immediate: Transactions enter blocks faster Confirmation delays shrink Wallets and dApps feel more responsive during peak usage These profits are most important when the chain is operational rather than in the state of idleness. Inside the Fermi Upgrade: Key Technical Changes Fermi is being deployed with a BSC v1.6.4 client and a package of protocol enhancements that are to be…
Filed under: News - @ January 14, 2026 4:26 pm