BNB Smart Chain (BNB Chain) has successfully implemented the Maxwell hard fork on June 30, 2025, reducing block production times from 1.5 seconds to approximately 0.75 to 0.8 seconds. This upgrade enhances transaction speed, validator synchronization, and overall network efficiency, positioning BNB Chain for improved scalability and user experience within the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. The Maxwell upgrade has led to increased decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume and has been described as BNB Chain's largest upgrade to date. Following this development, BNB Chain aims to achieve Nasdaq-level speeds by 2026, targeting over 20,000 transactions per second (TPS) and sub-150 millisecond finality, along with plans for 5,000 DEX swaps per second and a tenfold increase in gas limits. These improvements are expected to rival the latency and performance of traditional stock exchanges. Additionally, BNB Chain has seen its transaction volume triple since April 2025, reflecting growing adoption and network activity. The upgrade also includes enhanced peer-to-peer messaging between validators to improve synchronization. In related blockchain news, Dogecoin developers have proposed a network upgrade that could potentially elevate Dogecoin's performance to rival Ethereum and Solana if implemented.