BNB Chain opens forum for community input on its new Layer 1

BNB Chain wants your opinion on its next blockchain. The project has opened a dedicated community forum category for NewL1, a new Layer 1 network built for workloads that stretch beyond what BNB Smart Chain (BSC) can handle today.

The forum category first went live in July 2026. BNB Chain promoted it again on October 17 and 19, 2026, which means the conversation is heating up ahead of a planned testnet.

What NewL1 is supposed to do

NewL1 is a Layer 1, meaning it is a base blockchain with its own consensus and settlement. It is not a scaling add-on that sits on top of another chain.

It is also EVM-compatible. The Ethereum Virtual Machine is the software environment most smart contracts are written for. Compatibility means developers can bring existing code and tools over without starting from scratch.

The chain is aimed at three use cases: trading, payments and AI. The research specifically points to agentic AI trading, where software agents execute trades on their own rather than waiting for a human to click a button.

The performance targets are ambitious. BNB Chain is aiming for:

Sub-50 millisecond preconfirmations. A preconfirmation is an early signal that a transaction will be included, delivered before the block is fully settled.

More than 100,000 transactions per second. Throughput of that scale would let the network absorb heavy bursts of activity, the kind high-frequency trading and automated agents tend to generate.

Sub-second finality. Finality is the point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed.

No new token, and a feature aimed at front-runners

NewL1 does not plan to have a new token. The existing BNB token will serve as the sole gas token. Gas is the fee users pay to get transactions processed. So every transaction on NewL1 would be paid for in BNB.

The other headline feature is TxStream, a structure designed to reduce front-running risk. Front-running happens when someone sees your pending trade and jumps ahead of it to profit from the price move you were about to cause.

NewL1 is also slated to include privacy enhancements, which could further reduce how much information pending transactions leak to opportunistic actors.

A native bridge is planned to connect BSC and NewL1. That gives users and assets a built-in route between the two chains rather than relying on third-party bridging services.

The forum ground rules

The forum covers technical design questions, including tokenomics, consensus protocols and privacy features.

Tokenomics is an interesting item on the agenda for a chain that is not launching a token. The open question is how BNB itself will function in the new environment, which is a design problem even without a fresh asset.

BNB Chain has set ground rules to keep the discussion focused on technical development. Speculative price talk is off the table.

The timeline is relatively tight. A testnet is projected for late 2026, with mainnet expected in early 2027.

How BNB Chain got here

BNB Chain has grown into a multi-chain ecosystem anchored by BSC, known for low fees and a large amount of DeFi activity.

In 2023, the project launched opBNB, a Layer 2 scaling solution that sits on top of the main chain to handle extra transaction volume. NewL1 continues that expansion, but instead of scaling BSC, it builds a separate base layer tuned for specific tasks.

What this means

For BNB holders, the most concrete takeaway is the gas token decision. If NewL1 attracts trading, payments and AI activity, that usage would run on BNB rather than a competing asset.

The things to watch are the testnet launch in late 2026, early performance data against the sub-50 millisecond and sub-second finality goals, and how much of the forum feedback actually shows up in the final design.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.