diff --git a/tools/VERSION b/tools/VERSION
index 7ba8c56..f44f6d8 100644
--- a/tools/VERSION
+++ b/tools/VERSION
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@
 #  * Making cherry-picks to stable channel
 #     - increase PATCH by 1
 #
-CHANNEL dev
+CHANNEL beta
 MAJOR 2
 MINOR 16
 PATCH 0
 PRERELEASE 80
-PRERELEASE_PATCH 0
\ No newline at end of file
+PRERELEASE_PATCH 1
\ No newline at end of file