BNB Chain has executed a significant network upgrade and announced another major enhancement, both aimed at dramatically improving performance and scalability. The Fermi hard fork was activated on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) mainnet on January 14, 2026, at 02:30 UTC, supported by the v1.6.4 client release. This upgrade successfully reduces block production time from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds and achieves block finality in approximately one second.
The Fermi upgrade introduces updated voting rules for fast finality through BEP-590 to support frequent block production, alongside various parameter updates, improvements, and bug fixes. It represents the final phase of BSC's short-block roadmap, following previous upgrades like Lorentz, Pascal, and Maxwell, and is designed to make the network faster without compromising reliability.
In parallel, BNB Chain developers have announced the upcoming Optimized MIR Interpreter mainnet upgrade. This enhancement targets the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) execution layer, aiming to accelerate smart contract execution by approximately 8-27%. It addresses inefficiencies in the traditional stack-based interpreter by employing a Control Flow Graph (CFG) and Registers, allowing for direct data access and pre-mapped execution paths.
Internal testing on real contracts has shown promising results: the USDT and WBNB contracts executed about 11% and 23% faster, respectively, while complex functions like deposits saw speed improvements of up to 27%. The upgrade is intended to lower execution overhead, improve performance, and provide more headroom for complex dApps without requiring developers to change their code.
These technical advancements are part of the broader BNB Chain Tech Roadmap 2026, which focuses on faster execution under real production load, predictable application performance, and infrastructure scaling. The network also plans to launch a native stablecoin for large-scale use and liquidity integration.
The market has reacted positively to these developments. Following the Fermi activation and news of the upcoming Optimized MIR Interpreter, BNB's price saw immediate gains. One source reported a 5% increase, pushing the price to around $950, while another noted a 0.9% rise to $938.2, bringing its market capitalization to approximately $127.9 billion. Analysts suggest the token is now eyeing the $1,000 mark, with the next key resistance zone seen between $1,050 and $1,080.
Potential catalysts for further price appreciation include the eventual approval of a spot BNB Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), a prospect that recently generated positive market sentiment after Grayscale filed for such a product. The upgrades are expected to enhance BNB's utility, particularly for DeFi and high-frequency applications on BSC, driving greater network demand.
