diff --git a/src/libxrpl/protocol/BuildInfo.cpp b/src/libxrpl/protocol/BuildInfo.cpp
index d5077aa44d..ae15ea6dec 100644
--- a/src/libxrpl/protocol/BuildInfo.cpp
+++ b/src/libxrpl/protocol/BuildInfo.cpp
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ namespace BuildInfo {
 //  and follow the format described at http://semver.org/
 //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // clang-format off
-char const* const versionString = "2.6.0"
+char const* const versionString = "2.6.1-rc1"
 // clang-format on
 
 #if defined(DEBUG) || defined(SANITIZER)