What Is BNB Chain's NewL1? The Planned New Layer 1, Explained (Not Live Yet)

NewL1 is the working name for a planned, separate Layer 1 blockchain from BNB Chain that its forum describes as fully EVM-compatible and as complementing BNB Smart Chain (BSC) rather than replacing it. As of October 2026 it has no public testnet or mainnet; BNB Chain's roadmap plans a testnet by the end of 2026 and mainnet in early 2027. Its speed figures are design targets, not measured results.

What is NewL1, and why is it called a working name?

NewL1 is the name used on BNB Chain's developer forum for a planned Layer 1 blockchain. According to the forum, it is fully EVM-compatible and purpose-built for trading, payments, privacy and AI. The name is a working one: BNB Chain's official H2 2026 roadmap, published on July 8, 2026, does not use the word NewL1. It describes a "next-generation L1 architecture built to support different use cases than the existing ones" under the heading "A New L1 Takes Shape". No final brand name has been announced.

Why is BNB Chain building a separate Layer 1 instead of upgrading BSC?

According to BNB Chain's forum, NewL1 targets workloads that need deep architectural changes BSC cannot retrofit; the roadmap blog gives no detailed rationale. The forum also says NewL1 complements BSC rather than replacing it: "BSC continues serving its mature ecosystem". Crypto Briefing describes it as a separate base layer: "It is not a scaling add-on that sits on top of another chain." That would set it apart from a Layer 2 such as opBNB, though that comparison is an inference, not an official one.

How is NewL1 designed? TxStream, PriorityLane and the speed targets

The roadmap names several design ingredients, all planned and none deployed. The headline target is 100K+ TPS "through co-optimized consensus, parallel execution, and LtHash-based storage", alongside sub-50 ms transaction preconfirmation and sub-1-second block finality. Every one of these numbers is a design target, not a measured result on any network.

A few terms help read these figures. TPS is transactions per second. Preconfirmation is a block leader's early commitment to include and order a transaction, while finality means the transaction can no longer be reversed, so the two targets describe different moments. MEV (maximal extractable value) is the value that can be captured by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions, and front-running is one form of it.

TxStream is a planned design feature. According to the roadmap, there is no public mempool: transactions stream directly to the block leader, "cutting latency and blocking front-running by design". For background, see what a mempool is. Tools that watch pending transactions may not see them, an inference from the design rather than an official statement. The Block reported that, per BNB Chain CTO David Z, block leaders would rotate every 200 milliseconds, a target not found in the official roadmap blog. PriorityLane, the second named feature, is described by BNB Chain as reserved, on-chain-governed block space for oracles, liquidations and bridges. As of October 2026, no parameters have been published.

Account abstraction and privacy: what the roadmap plans

The roadmap lists an account-abstraction suite for the new L1: gas sponsorship, GasToken, transaction batching, scheduled execution, passkey signing and access key control. It does not say whether this is built on ERC-4337, on EIP-7702 or at the protocol level, and it does not explain GasToken.

On privacy, the roadmap lists protocol-level confidential transactions with selective disclosure for compliance as planned. One forum post proposes a shielded-pool privacy layer, and another proposes a TEE Gateway, an ordering and packaging service in a trusted execution environment aimed at MEV. Both are design proposals, not confirmed features.

Status and timeline: what exists as of October 2026

BNB Chain first announced the new L1 on July 8, 2026, in its H2 2026 tech roadmap blog post. The timeline reads: "We plan to ship it on testnet by the end of 2026, with mainnet release following in early 2027."

As of October 2026, we found no public NewL1 testnet, no specific testnet date and no delay announcement - an absence of evidence, not an official statement. The forum category listed only three topics, the latest active on October 10. The only network referenced is an internal devnet, described in a forum design post; it is not public.

NewL1, BNB Smart Chain and the BNB token: what is said, what is not

BNB Chain's forum says BNB is NewL1's native token and that "no new token will be issued". On gas, Crypto Briefing reported that BNB will be the sole gas token, but that is media wording, not an official statement; official fee mechanics are not yet published.

The forum and The Block both say NewL1 would connect to BSC through an "official native bridge". As of October 2026, its design, supported assets and timing have not been published. On compatibility, the forum says "fully EVM-compatible" without technical detail, and the roadmap blog does not define it. As of October 2026, no chain ID, RPC endpoint, SDK or wallet guidance has been published, so nobody should assume existing contracts, tools or wallets will work unchanged.

Open questions, criticism and what BNB holders should know today

No performance figure has been demonstrated; The Block noted this because the chain has not reached testnet. BNB Chain CTO David Z told The Block: "TxStream doesn't eliminate MEV. Nothing does. It makes the dominant attacks impractical by design." The Block and CoinMarketCap also raised whether, with no public mempool, the block leader becomes a single point of extraction or censorship. The stated mitigations, 200 ms leader rotation and sub-50 ms preconfirmation commitments, are design targets only. Crypto Briefing added that "The timeline is relatively tight."

For holders, as of October 2026, no migration, airdrop or required action has been announced for BSC users or BNB holders, but there is also no official "no action needed" statement. Because BNB Chain says no new token will be issued, any "NewL1 token", "airdrop" or "claim" is not part of its stated plan, and no one should share a seed phrase. For wallets on BNB Smart Chain today, see the best BNB Chain wallets.

What this means for WATS users today

There is no public NewL1 network for any wallet to connect to, and BNB Chain has published no chain ID or wallet guidance as of October 2026. What is true of WATS today is narrower. On EVM networks, BNB Chain included, WATS charges every action in one token, ATS, instead of the chain's native gas. The network still receives its native gas (BNB on BNB Smart Chain): an ERC-4337 paymaster pays it in the background. The ATS balance sits on BSC, and the fee is debited from that one balance whichever EVM network is used, with no bridging (see paying EVM gas from one BSC balance). The fee tracks the live network cost and is not a discount. NewL1's planned gas sponsorship has an unpublished mechanism, so it should not be treated as the same thing. WATS stays non-custodial: you hold your keys and WATS never holds a key. For the full fee model, see the ATS fee explainer.