BNB Chain has announced that it will reduce the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) block time from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds with the hard fork upgrade called “Maxwell” that will occur on June 30, 2025. This significant change aims to increase the network’s transaction speed, improve response time, and strengthen the performance of all ecosystem components.
The Maxwell upgrade is the implementation of three key proposals, BEP-524, BEP-563 and BEP-564. Each of these proposals aims to further enhance the speed and reliability aspects of the BSC.
With the new update:
- Block time will be reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds.
- Communication between validators will be improved.
- Block synchronization between nodes will be accelerated.
These improvements will benefit all network participants, including users, developers, validators, and node operators.
The Maxwell update is a new step after BNB Chain previously reduced its block time from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds with the Lorentz hardfork. Lorentz also brought significant improvements to network stability:
- The frequency of reorganizations (reorg) decreased from an average of 5 per day to 2.
- Block finality has become more consistent across validators.
- Validator memory usage and block processing time have decreased.
According to Dune Analytics data, during this period BSC:
- It reduced the average transaction fee to $0.04.
- It reached the top in daily DEX trading volume.
Post-Maxwell, transactions on BSC will be nearly instantaneous. Token swaps, NFT minting, or any dApp interaction will be much smoother and faster.
*This is not investment advice.