diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f200438d..89d76383 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+## 1.6.1 / 2023-09-05
+
+* [SECURITY] Build precompiled binaries with current Go version (1.21.0) to avoid known bugs in older Go versions.
+* [BUGFIX] Update dependencies to pull in possibly relevant bugfixes.
+
 ## 1.6.0 / 2023-05-25
 
 * [FEATURE] Add snappy encoding support for `/metrics` endpoint. #518
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index dc1e644a..9c6d6293 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.6.0
+1.6.1