diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0273992e8..10ea9e1eb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,29 @@
 For **1.x** release notes, please see [v1.x/CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/blob/v1.x/CHANGELOG.md)
 
 ---
+### Release 2.6.1 (2024-12-13)
+* [#1365](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1365) Add config to enable point in time recovery for the DynamoDB lease table created by KCL
+* [#1325](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1325) Add logic to sync from lease table on first app bootstrap
+* [#1372](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1372) Fix debug and trace level logging to log all worker loops
+* [#1319](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1319) Fix a race condition between ShardConsumer shutdown and initialization
+* [#1354](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1354) Fix bug where the in-memory lease is updated even when DDB fails to update
+* [#1363](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1363) Fix some of the warnings emitted by maven during build
+* [#1358](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1358) Remove ShutdownNotificationAware and update javadocs
+* [#1329](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1329) Remove unnecessary lambda
+* [#1340](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1340) Generate wrappers from proto files instead of shipping them directly
+* [#1332](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1332) Enforce consistent code style with palantir-java-format
+* [#1294](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1294) Upgrade org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-checkstyle-plugin from 3.3.0 to 3.3.1
+* [#1296](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1296) Upgrade org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin from 3.1.2 to 3.2.5
+* [#1312](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1312) Upgrade commons-io:commons-io from 2.15.1 to 2.16.1
+* [#1331](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1331) Upgrade maven-compiler-plugin from 3.11.0 to 3.13.0
+* [#1335](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1335) Upgrade org.slf4j:slf4j-api from 2.0.7 to 2.0.13
+* [#1336](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1336) Upgrade io.reactivex.rxjava3:rxjava from 3.1.6 to 3.1.8
+* [#1337](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1337) Upgrade com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java from 3.21.12 to 4.27.0
+* [#1341](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1341) Upgrade awssdk.version from 2.25.11 to 2.25.64
+* [#1342](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1342) Upgrade org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-javadoc-plugin from 3.6.3 to 3.7.0
+* [#1343](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1343) Upgrade org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-failsafe-plugin from 3.1.2 to 3.2.5
+* [#1383](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1383) Upgrade com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java from 4.27.0 to 4.27.5
+ 
 ### Release 2.6.0 (2024-05-01)
 * [#1317](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1317) Add enablePriorityLeaseAssignment config
 * [#1320](https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-client/pull/1320) Update lease taker to get unassigned leases
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6737c4b1f..90f4bb4f4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ The recommended way to use the KCL for Java is to consume it from Maven.
   <dependency>
       <groupId>software.amazon.kinesis</groupId>
       <artifactId>amazon-kinesis-client</artifactId>
-      <version>2.6.0</version>
+      <version>2.6.1</version>
   </dependency>
   ```
 
diff --git a/amazon-kinesis-client-multilang/pom.xml b/amazon-kinesis-client-multilang/pom.xml
index c972b61c2..352210f0f 100644
--- a/amazon-kinesis-client-multilang/pom.xml
+++ b/amazon-kinesis-client-multilang/pom.xml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
   <parent>
     <artifactId>amazon-kinesis-client-pom</artifactId>
     <groupId>software.amazon.kinesis</groupId>
-    <version>2.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.6.1</version>
   </parent>
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
diff --git a/amazon-kinesis-client/pom.xml b/amazon-kinesis-client/pom.xml
index b2efcae0a..36eee79d7 100644
--- a/amazon-kinesis-client/pom.xml
+++ b/amazon-kinesis-client/pom.xml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>software.amazon.kinesis</groupId>
     <artifactId>amazon-kinesis-client-pom</artifactId>
-    <version>2.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.6.1</version>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>amazon-kinesis-client</artifactId>
diff --git a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/retrieval/RetrievalConfig.java b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/retrieval/RetrievalConfig.java
index fdd6c4457..258159d75 100644
--- a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/retrieval/RetrievalConfig.java
+++ b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/retrieval/RetrievalConfig.java
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public class RetrievalConfig {
      */
     public static final String KINESIS_CLIENT_LIB_USER_AGENT = "amazon-kinesis-client-library-java";
 
-    public static final String KINESIS_CLIENT_LIB_USER_AGENT_VERSION = "2.6.1-SNAPSHOT";
+    public static final String KINESIS_CLIENT_LIB_USER_AGENT_VERSION = "2.6.1";
 
     /**
      * Client used to make calls to Kinesis for records retrieval
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e9a9bcb0e..65af8d5e2 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
   <artifactId>amazon-kinesis-client-pom</artifactId>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
   <name>Amazon Kinesis Client Library</name>
-  <version>2.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <version>2.6.1</version>
   <description>The Amazon Kinesis Client Library for Java enables Java developers to easily consume and process data
     from Amazon Kinesis.
   </description>