diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 2dea713..1cff1f0 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+version 0.9.7
+-------------
+
+- history and UTXO requests are now processed by the executor, i.e.,
+  properly asynchronously.  This was the last of the potential latency
+  bottlenecks.
+
 version 0.9.6
 -------------
 
diff --git a/server/version.py b/server/version.py
index 9dc1bda..a590391 100644
--- a/server/version.py
+++ b/server/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-VERSION = "ElectrumX 0.9.6"
+VERSION = "ElectrumX 0.9.7"