Bitcoin Core v32.0rc1, tagged with a verified signature on September 14, 2026, marks the feature freeze for the upcoming release and begins compatibility testing for node operators, wallet providers and RPC-dependent services. The live schedule aims for a final v32.0 tag on October 10, 2026, while maintenance for Bitcoin Core 29.x is also scheduled to end by that date. The candidate is prerelease software, does not activate new consensus rules, and requires testing against version 31.1, the current official download baseline. Key risks include RPC and PSBTv2 compatibility, the rewritten HTTP server, transaction-index rebuilds and rollback, fee-estimation failures, and private-broadcast behavior. About 60% of reachable Bitcoin nodes currently run versions referenced in the release update.