BNB Chain Schedules Pasteur Hardfork for BSC Mainnet on August 25

BNB Chain has scheduled the Pasteur hardfork for the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) mainnet to activate at 02:30 UTC on August 25, 2026. According to the official announcement, all node operators on the network are required to upgrade to client version v1.7.7 to maintain compatibility and synchronization with the blockchain.

The upgrade follows a preliminary rollout on the BSC Chapel Testnet, which required node operators to adopt version v1.7.6 in July. The mainnet activation consolidates several technical improvements under the BEP-673 meta-proposal, focusing on cross-chain security, validator governance, and throughput infrastructure.

Infrastructure and Governance Improvements

The Pasteur hardfork integrates three specific Binance Evolution Proposals (BEPs) designed to refine the network’s operational structure:

• BEP-682: Targets cross-chain bridge security by addressing a vulnerability in asset transfers. The update ensures that validator signatures cannot be counted multiple times, requiring a legitimate threshold of unique signatures to authorize transfers.
• BEP-695: Adjusts staking and governance rules regarding validator consensus keys. The proposal fixes a flaw where an old consensus key could retain authority after a rotation, tightening the security of the active validator set.
• BEP-675: Introduces system contract changes intended to support BNB Chain’s long-term goal of doubling mainnet throughput by the end of 2026.

For participants in the network’s consensus layer, the update introduces stricter rules for validator key management. Node operators will need to ensure their configurations comply with the requirements introduced by BEP-695 to avoid potential disruptions to validator participation. The available announcement does not specify additional penalties or the precise conditions under which a validator could be removed from the active set.

The transition is part of a series of coordinated infrastructure updates for BNB Chain, following previous hardforks named after prominent scientists, including Pascal, Mendel, and Fermi. While Pasteur introduces new security and throughput-related capabilities, the immediate requirement for the BSC community is technical compliance. Nodes that have not upgraded to v1.7.7 by the scheduled activation will not be compatible with the mainnet changes and could lose synchronization with the network.