BNB Chain Plans New Layer-1 for AI Agents and Quantum Future

AI agents may be ready to trade crypto, but BNB Chain says current blockchains aren’t ready for it.

On Wednesday, BNB Chain unveiled plans for a new layer-1 blockchain built to handle high-frequency trading, automated payments and AI-driven transactions at speeds closer to traditional financial markets. According to the developers, the new network will run alongside the existing BNB Chain blockchain and will not replace it.

Detailed in the technical version of H2 2026 roadmapThe new network is expected to launch on testnet in late 2026, with a mainnet release planned for early 2027.

“Six months ago, BNB Chain set three priorities for BSC: speed, throughput, and protocol stability,” the developers wrote. “This roadmap starts with the receipts and ends with what comes next: a second half focused on doubling performance again and an architecture designed for the next decade.”

According to BNB Chain, the new network is being built to eventually process more than 100,000 transactions per second by processing multiple transactions simultaneously and improving the way data is stored and verified. The developers said it also aims to confirm transactions in less than 50 milliseconds and complete blocks in less than a second.

An important part of the new layer one is TxStream. This system removes the public mempool where pending blockchain transactions are typically visible before confirmation and sends transactions directly to block leaders to reduce latency and limit front-running capabilities.

According to BNB Chain, upgrades to BNB Smart Chain in the first half of 2026 have reduced block intervals from 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds and increased benchmark throughput from approximately 2,800 transactions per second to 5,200. The developers said the next phase will focus on further increasing throughput, reducing congestion between applications.

In addition to speed improvements, BNB Chain says it is researching quantum-resistant security as developers prepare for future threats to quantum computers.

The developers said they are exploring ways to add quantum-safe protection through account abstraction, which would allow users to upgrade security without changing wallet addresses. The work is still in the research phase.

BNB Chain said its quantum security research focuses on protecting against future threats where more advanced quantum computers could decrypt encrypted data collected today. The developers said they are testing hybrid security and ways for users to use quantum-safe security without changing wallet addresses.

“There is no end point here. Quantum computing will continue to evolve, and so will our testing and research,” they wrote. “The point is that when it matures, BNB Chain’s infrastructure is already prepared.”

BNB Keten did not immediately respond to a request for comment Declutter.

The news comes as crypto and tech companies build infrastructure for AI agents that can move money and execute transactions without constant human approval.

In March, Stripe-backed Tempo launched its payments-focused Layer-1 blockchain alongside the Machine Payments Protocol, an open standard designed for transactions between AI agents and online services.

That same month, MoonPay launched the Open Wallet Standard, a framework developed with contributors like PayPal, Ethereum Foundation, Solana Foundation, Ripple, and others to let AI agents manage money and execute transactions over blockchains.

In May, Amazon Web Services partnered with Coinbase and Stripe to launch Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, which allows AI agents to use USDC stablecoins to pay for APIs, data feeds, and online services, and in June Coinbase launched Coinbase for Agents, a tool that allows AI agents to trade crypto, make payments, and manage wallets within user-defined limits.