Bitcoin Core 32.0 Release Candidate Finalized with Performance and Security Improvements
Bitcoin Core developers have finalized the release candidate for version 32.0, which is expected to become the new stable release on October 10, 2026.
The update focuses on performance and security improvements, including faster block verification by reading database information across eight parallel worker threads, as well as a smarter fee estimator that looks at both recent blocks and the mempool for more accurate recommendations.
Two critical security patches have also been implemented: one fixes a wallet-naming flaw that could trigger unwanted commands on non-Windows nodes, while the other addresses a memory-exhaustion bug in the new HTTP server, reducing unauthenticated memory growth from 3.2 GB to just 3 MB over a 90-second test window.
Additionally, four wallet-related commands now default to producing the newer PSBT version 2 format by default, while still allowing backward compatibility with older formats.