BNB Chain has published technical documentation outlining a new high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed to operate in parallel with BNB Smart Chain. The proposed network, currently referred to as New L1 and still without an official name, will use BNB as its sole native asset for transaction fees, staking and governance. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, publicly responded to the plan with the statement “Multiple chains, one coins.”

The documentation, added on October 22, describes an EVM-compatible chain built for applications that require low latency and predictable transaction inclusion. It is intended for high-frequency trading, real-time payments, confidential finance and agent-driven activity rather than as a replacement for the existing BNB Smart Chain ecosystem.

Architecture and Performance Targets

Under the proposed design, BNB Smart Chain will continue to support its current decentralized finance applications, trading platforms and other services. The new network will handle workloads needing faster processing. The two chains will connect through a native bridge that remains under development.

Block production is targeted at intervals of approximately 200 milliseconds. Transaction pre-confirmation is expected in about 20 milliseconds through a sub-block mechanism. Finality for transaction order is aimed at under one second using an enhanced version of the Parlia consensus mechanism that incorporates BLS voting. Execution finality occurs only after a subsequent block records the result and itself reaches finality.

The architecture separates transaction ordering from execution so that consensus does not wait for processing to complete. A Multi-Lane system reserves capacity for specific transaction classes, preventing high-priority traffic from being delayed by other activity. The network routes transactions directly to the current and next block producers rather than using a global mempool.

Additional features include native account abstraction that supports gas sponsorship, passkey signing and batched operations without requiring external bundlers. An optional shielded pool is planned for confidential transfers that hide sender, recipient and amount details, though the current implementation is not ready for production use with real funds.

Shared BNB Token and Governance

No new cryptocurrency will be issued. BNB bridged from BNB Smart Chain will serve as the gas token. Users who stake BNB through StakeHub receive govBNB at a one-to-one ratio. This non-transferable token provides voting rights in the network’s governance system once delegated.

Existing Solidity smart contracts and standard wallet flows are expected to function without modification. Certain Ethereum RPC methods and transaction types, including eth_getProof, EIP-4844 and EIP-7702, will not be supported. Developers will pay for declared gas limits rather than actual gas used.

Development Timeline and Current Status

An internal multi-validator development network is already operating and producing blocks with end-to-end finality. A public testnet is planned for late 2026, followed by a mainnet launch targeted for early 2027. These dates remain subject to change as development progresses.

Several components still require work. The native bridge is incomplete, and the privacy system needs security audits and further trusted-setup procedures before it can be used in production. Public network endpoints will be released once a suitable testing environment is ready.

The proposal builds on earlier performance work on BNB Smart Chain, including upgrades aimed at higher throughput and faster finality. The new Layer 1 represents a separate clean-slate design rather than further incremental changes to the existing chain.

BNB Chain has recorded substantial activity in tokenized financial products. In the third quarter, the network processed approximately $25.6 billion in tokenized stock transactions, held around $1.13 billion in tokenized equity supply and recorded 1.51 billion transactions while generating $54.2 million in revenue.

At the time of the announcement discussions, BNB was trading near $740. The project documentation stresses that the new network is still under development and that timelines and features may evolve.