BNB Chain’s New L1 Trade-Off: 200ms Speed for No Gas Refunds and Bridge Risks

BNB Chain is developing a parallel EVM-compatible Layer 1 that retains BNB as its native asset, with a public testnet targeted for late 2026. Transactions will be charged on their declared gas limits rather than actual consumption, changing how developers and users manage execution costs. A new state-storage model removes standard Ethereum state-proof support, while the planned bridge introduces a separate security dependency. BNB Chain is preparing a second Layer 1 blockchain that prioritizes transaction speed over several conventions of Ethereum-compatible networks, including gas refunds, conventional state proofs and synchronous execution.