The BNB Chain’s Pasteur hard fork has delivered an early increase in network capacity, with live mainnet data showing that block gas capacity has risen by 28% since the upgrade was activated on Aug. 25, 2026. The improvement is being driven by BEP-675, a change designed to remove redundant execution steps during block production and improve how efficiently the BNB Smart Chain uses available computing capacity.
Before Pasteur, block production on BNB Smart Chain involved three EVM execution passes during the assembly process. BEP-675 reduces that workload by allowing builders to send fully executed blocks, known as BidBlocks, directly to validators. The change eliminates one duplicated execution stage and leaves more of each block’s execution window available for processing transactions.
Blocks using the new BidBlock V2 format have averaged 28% more gas capacity than those produced under the previous Bid V1 format, with peak capacity reaching 43.8 million gas compared with 33.8 million under the older system.
The results indicate that the upgrade is improving block utilization rather than relying solely on longer block times or other changes to increase throughput.
Nearly All Blocks Shift to the New Format
Adoption of BEP-675 has accelerated rapidly since the Pasteur hard fork. During a three-day observation period ending Sept. 1, BidBlock V2 was used for about 98% of blocks produced on BNB Smart Chain. The remaining 2% continued to use Bid V1, which remains available as a fallback to support network stability during the transition.
The largest builders have played a significant role in the shift. 48Club and BlockRazor together produced nearly 98% of blocks during the period, helping the new format become the dominant method of block production.
Of the 49 registered builders, 24 had already integrated BEP-675 during the observation period, while all 33 active builders were using the upgrade. The figures suggest that the technical changes introduced by Pasteur have moved quickly from testing into regular mainnet operations.
BNB Chain Plans Larger Gas Limits
BNB Chain is also preparing for further increases in block capacity. The network is operating around a 55 million gas limit and plans to raise the ceiling in stages to 70 million, 80 million and eventually 90 million, subject to mainnet performance.
Validators had already begun increasing the limit, with the figure exceeding 55 million as of Sept. 14, 2026. Network utilization was above 95%, highlighting strong demand for available execution capacity.
The planned expansion toward a 90 million gas limit could substantially increase transaction capacity, but it will also test whether validators, nodes and synchronization systems can maintain performance as blocks become larger.
The development forms part of BNB Chain’s broader effort to increase throughput. Earlier upgrades, including Fermi and the Osaka/Mendel hard forks, focused on block-time reductions and network stability. Pasteur takes a different approach by targeting greater efficiency in the block-production process.
Testnet results cited in the report showed throughput increasing from 1,237 transactions per second to 2,324 TPS, representing an 88% gain.
Potential Impact on BNB and Network Adoption
BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, was trading at $724.58, with a 24-hour decline of 0.19%. The network upgrade itself may not immediately translate into a significant token-price reaction, but improved capacity could strengthen the chain’s longer-term appeal to decentralized applications and institutional users.
Higher throughput could allow applications to process larger transaction volumes while maintaining the network’s existing settlement characteristics. However, scaling through larger blocks also creates additional infrastructure demands, making node efficiency, synchronization and network reliability increasingly important.
The Pasteur upgrade therefore represents an important stage in BNB Chain’s scaling strategy. By reducing duplicated EVM execution and creating additional block capacity, BEP-675 provides more room for transaction processing as network activity grows.
The next stages of the gas-limit expansion will provide a critical test of whether BNB Chain can translate its improved block efficiency into sustained higher throughput without compromising network stability and security.
