diff --git a/package/CHANGELOG b/package/CHANGELOG
index 4f22c3acbc6..6981608e361 100644
--- a/package/CHANGELOG
+++ b/package/CHANGELOG
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The rules for this file:
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-??/??/?? IAlibay, jaclark5, MohitKumar020291, orionarcher, xhgchen,
+08/15/23 IAlibay, jaclark5, MohitKumar020291, orionarcher, xhgchen,
          ztimol, orbeckst
 
 
diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/version.py b/package/MDAnalysis/version.py
index 00b60392dc0..eb02ee57305 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/version.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/version.py
@@ -67,4 +67,4 @@
 # e.g. with lib.log
 
 #: Release of MDAnalysis as a string, using `semantic versioning`_.
-__version__ = "2.6.0-dev0"  # NOTE: keep in sync with RELEASE in setup.py
+__version__ = "2.6.0"  # NOTE: keep in sync with RELEASE in setup.py
diff --git a/package/pyproject.toml b/package/pyproject.toml
index 252b90160ec..89987c6d01a 100644
--- a/package/pyproject.toml
+++ b/package/pyproject.toml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ maintainers = [
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.9"
 dependencies = [
-    'numpy>=1.22.3',
+    'numpy>=1.22.3,<2.0',
     'biopython>=1.80',
     'networkx>=2.0',
     'GridDataFormats>=0.4.0',
diff --git a/package/setup.py b/package/setup.py
index f6467bc4bc3..4488f5d8e86 100755
--- a/package/setup.py
+++ b/package/setup.py
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 from subprocess import getoutput
 
 # NOTE: keep in sync with MDAnalysis.__version__ in version.py
-RELEASE = "2.6.0-dev0"
+RELEASE = "2.6.0"
 
 is_release = 'dev' not in RELEASE
 
@@ -592,7 +592,7 @@ def long_description(readme):
     exts, cythonfiles = extensions(config)
 
     install_requires = [
-          'numpy>=1.22.3',
+          'numpy>=1.22.3,<2.0',
           'biopython>=1.80',
           'networkx>=2.0',
           'GridDataFormats>=0.4.0',
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/__init__.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/__init__.py
index 332c3c020eb..747605bb969 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/__init__.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/__init__.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger("MDAnalysisTests.__init__")
 
 # keep in sync with RELEASE in setup.py
-__version__ = "2.6.0-dev0"
+__version__ = "2.6.0"
 
 
 # Do NOT import MDAnalysis at this level. Tests should do it themselves.
diff --git a/testsuite/setup.py b/testsuite/setup.py
index e8aeb915a29..f2757f70b70 100755
--- a/testsuite/setup.py
+++ b/testsuite/setup.py
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ def run(self):
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     # this must be in-sync with MDAnalysis
-    RELEASE = "2.6.0-dev0"
+    RELEASE = "2.6.0"
     with open("README") as summary:
         LONG_DESCRIPTION = summary.read()