The Fermi hardfork has been activated on the Binance [BNB] Chain, nearly doubling the block production speed. Post the upgrade, the time it takes to create a block dropped from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds, about twice as fast.
In other words, transactions are confirmed faster, making apps and transfers on the chain feel snappier, even during busy periods, without massive lag.
But this is just a “foundation” for bigger plans for BNB Chain this year.
In an email statement, Nina Rong, Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain, told AMBCrypto,
“Looking ahead to 2026, we’re designing a next-generation trading chain built for extreme performance – targeting near-instant confirmations, massive sustained throughput, and a hybrid on-chain and off-chain compute model.”
Rong added that the BNB Chain will now focus on enhancing user experience and giving more flexibility to builders.
“The goal is to deliver Web2-level user experience while preserving decentralization, security, and developer choice, with a flexible migration path so builders can adopt new infrastructure on their own terms.”
The Layer 1 smart contract-based chains have become increasingly competitive lately amid the race to address perceived shortcomings in Ethereum [ETH], the pioneer of DeFi.
BNB vs. Solana
The recent upgrade now positions BNB Chain among the top five fastest chains, boasting sub-second block times. Only Solana [SOL] appears to be a worthy competitor on this front.
Apart from speed, Solana has offered some of the cheapest transaction costs, one of the reasons the memecoin mania became successful on the chain. To match the competition, BNB Chain reduced its cost to $0.005 in late 2025.
Although BNB Chain’s transaction cost has risen slightly to $0.0918, it has significantly narrowed the fee gap. However, further progress is still needed.
In comparison, transacting on Solana costs only $0.0038, about 95% cheaper than on BNB Chain.
Why BNB price lags SOL
That said, on the price charts, SOL has strengthened against BNB in early 2026. In Q4 2025, BNB outperformed it by over 33%.
So far in January 2026, SOL has gained about 7% against BNB, as shown by the SOL/BNB ratio, which measures their relative performance.
In the past two weeks, SOL has rebounded from $124 to $145, securing a 17% gain. By comparison, BNB rose from $857 to $940 over the same period, marking a 10% increase.
As a result, SOL investors have enjoyed slightly stronger returns than BNB holders at the time of writing.
Final Thoughts
- BNB Chain activated the Fermi hardfork, nearly doubling block creation speed.
- Nina Rong, a Binance Executive, said the upgrade was a step towards 2026 scaling plans.
