diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a11d457..e4148f0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-## v2.6.0-beta2 / 2014 Feb 26
+## v2.6.0-RC1 / 2014 Mar 12
 
 > Welcoming feedback on any issues, etc.!
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e953d5f..36467ca 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 **[API docs][]** | **[CHANGELOG][]** | [other Clojure libs][] | [Twitter][] | [contact/contributing](#contact--contributing) | current ([semantic][]) version:
 
 ```clojure
-[com.taoensso/nippy "2.5.2"] ; Stable
-[com.taoensso/nippy "2.6.0-beta2"] ; For early adopters
+[com.taoensso/nippy "2.5.2"]     ; Stable
+[com.taoensso/nippy "2.6.0-RC1"] ; Appropriate for staging, early production adopters
 ```
 
 v2.6 will be a backwards-compatible release with: improved performance (incl. frozen data size), a new low-level DataInput/DataOuput API, improved support for headerless freezing, and 1-to-1 binary-value representation guarantees. See the [Changelog](https://github.com/ptaoussanis/nippy/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md) for details.
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 4636469..8301e80 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-(defproject com.taoensso/nippy "2.6.0-beta2"
+(defproject com.taoensso/nippy "2.6.0-RC1"
   :author "Peter Taoussanis <https://www.taoensso.com>"
   :description "Clojure serialization library"
   :url "https://github.com/ptaoussanis/nippy"
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
   :dependencies
   [[org.clojure/clojure      "1.4.0"]
    [org.clojure/tools.reader "0.8.3"]
-   [com.taoensso/encore      "0.9.2"]
+   [com.taoensso/encore      "0.9.8"]
    [org.iq80.snappy/snappy   "0.3"]
    [org.tukaani/xz           "1.4"]]