BNB Chain activates BNB Fourier hard fork, halving block times

By halving block times on opBNB, the focus shifts from raw throughput to user experience, especially for latency-sensitive DeFi apps.

BNB Chain’s Layer 2 network on BNB completed its Fourier mainnet hard fork on January 7 to cut block times in half.

The upgrade marks a meaningful step in BNB Chain’s scaling, improving transaction speed and strengthening its position as one of the busiest blockchain ecosystems in terms of user activity.

Fourier Hard Fork Halves Block Times on opBNB

The Fourier upgrade went live on January 7 at 03:00 UTC, according to an announcement from BNB Chain developers posted on X same day. The hard fork reduced opBNB’s block interval from 500 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds, a change confirmed shortly afterwards by Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who noted that the network completed the upgrade smoothly.

For developers and users, the shorter block time means faster transaction confirmations and lower latency for decentralized applications built on opBNB. The network is BNB Chain’s Layer 2 scaling solution, built using Optimism’s OP Stack, and is designed to handle high-throughput operations while keeping costs low.

Node operators were instructed to upgrade to supported client versions, including op-node v0.5.5 and op-geth v0.5.9, prior to the hard fork. The Fourier upgrade follows previous opBNB improvements such as the Fjord hard fork in September 2024, which adjusted Layer 1 fee calculations, and the Wright upgrade in August 2024 which introduced gasless transaction support.

The timing is notable, as BNB Chain continues to lead other Layer 1 networks in monthly active addresses, with Token Terminal data showing approximately 56 million active users, well ahead of NEAR Protocol and Solana.

Market response in a competitive landscape

BNB’s price showed a measured response after the upgrade. At the time of writing, the stock was trading around $917, up about 1% in the past 24 hours. The asset is up almost 6% over the past week, with a gain of about 10% over two weeks. Meanwhile, monthly performance remains modest at around 2%.

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While the token is still up more than 25% over the past year, it was recently overtaken by its Ripple rival after XRP rose from $1.86 to just under $2.30, pushing its market cap past $138 billion, compared to BNB’s $126 billion.

The Fourier upgrade also fits into a broader industry trend. Ethereum activated its Fusaka hard fork in December 2025, increasing data availability and reducing Layer 2 fees, while Vitalik Buterin recently stated that live upgrades such as PeerDAS and ZK-EVMs have reshaped Ethereum’s scalability model early on. Against that backdrop, BNB Chain’s focus on execution speed at both Layer 1 and Layer 2 demonstrates a parallel effort to remain competitive.