BNB Chain Targets 100,000 Transactions per Second With New Layer 1 Network
Key Facts
BNB Chain plans to launch a new Layer 1 network targeting throughput of more than 100,000 transactions per second, according to its technical roadmap for the second half of 2026. The company says the design combines improvements to coordination between consensus and execution, parallel processing and LtHash-based storage to increase capacity. Project documents describe New L1 as an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network designed for latency-sensitive workloads. The use cases cited in the documents include high-frequency trading, instant payments, confidential finance and activity managed by AI agents. The project positions BNB Smart Chain as the core chain of the existing ecosystem, while adding a network designed for workloads the company says have exceeded what the current chain was built to handle.
The documents say BNB will remain the network’s native asset, and there are no plans to issue a new token for it. The coin will be used to pay gas fees, while staking it through StakeHub enables the issuance of govBNB, which carries 1:1 governance weight. Under this design, the new network, according to its documents, extends the use of the existing asset to additional infrastructure rather than introducing a separate token. The roadmap says the infrastructure is intended to put BNB to use in trading, payments, privacy and AI applications. The available documents do not detail any changes to gas fee mechanisms or staking terms compared with the current network.
Performance targets include a pre-confirmation signal for a transaction in less than 50 milliseconds and block finality in less than a second, according to the roadmap. Development network specifications set a 200-millisecond interval between blocks, with transaction ordering finality targeted in less than a second through cross-block BLS votes. The documents say the early signal may arrive in about 20 milliseconds through SubBlocks, but does not mean the transaction has finished executing. They describe it as a best-effort, signed promise from validators about the transaction’s ordering and inclusion. The promise can be revoked and does not prove successful execution or finality; the timing of the early signal therefore differs from the timing of final transaction settlement.
The consensus plan is based on a design derived from Parlia, with BLS votes used to achieve rapid finality. The documents specify a validator set of up to 64 validators, under a proof-of-stake-and-authority mechanism. The roadmap also describes transactions flowing directly to the block leader without a public mempool. It says PriorityLane will allocate block space for operationally important transactions under on-chain governance. The company links improvements to consensus, parallel execution and LtHash-based storage to its stated goal of exceeding 100,000 transactions per second.
New L1 currently operates as a multi-validator development network, with live block production and end-to-end finality, according to project documents. The public testnet and mainnet launches remain at later stages. BNB Chain’s roadmap targets a testnet launch by the end of 2026, followed by a mainnet launch in early 2027. Public network endpoints are not yet available, while the native bridge between it and BNB Smart Chain remains under development. Completion of the bridge and opening the network to the public are among the project’s next milestones, alongside its move from the current development environment to the announced testing and launch stages.
New L1 is part of a broader plan to accelerate BNB Chain, as the roadmap says the interval between BNB Smart Chain blocks fell from 750 milliseconds in January to 450 milliseconds in June 2026. Processing speed in benchmark tests reached about 5,200 transactions per second in the first half of the year, according to the same source. The near-term plan targets doubling mainnet capacity, with a long-term goal of increasing performance 10 times across BNB Chain. The network recorded 31 million daily transactions on 5 October 2025, its highest daily level, the company said. BNB Chain added that the network handled several transaction peaks that year without stopping or interruption.
The company also points to other usage indicators from 2025, saying total value locked rose 40.5% during the year. The network’s stablecoin market capitalization peaked at $14 billion, while daily active users exceeded 4 million on each of BNB Smart Chain and opBNB. In connection with the New L1 announcement, Binance founder and former chief executive Changpeng Zhao reposted a user’s post about the network plan and wrote: "Multiple chains, one coin," according to Binance’s official account. Market data published by Binance at 06:15 UTC on 26 October 2026 showed BNB trading at 739.919983 USDT, down 0.66% over 24 hours. The price is a snapshot at that time and, on its own, does not establish that the new network announcement caused the coin’s move.