diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 63cf7e94..e7b39bdd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
 # Optimizely Android X SDK Changelog
 
+## 5.4.0
+September 2, 2026
+
+### New Features
+
+**Holdout Targeted Delivery Exclusion**: Holdouts can now be configured to exclude Targeted Delivery rules, so users held out of experiments still receive their Targeted Delivery experiences. This gives you a cleaner measure of experiment impact without holding users back from ongoing rollouts.
+- Upgrade dependency to [Java SDK 4.6.0](https://github.com/optimizely/java-sdk/releases/tag/4.6.0)
+
+### Fixes
+
+- Fix Jackson serializer NoClassDefFoundError when R8 obfuscates naming strategy fields ([#539](https://github.com/optimizely/android-sdk/pull/539))
+
 ## 5.3.0
 July 8, 2026
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 44df42da..0bf9f2c7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ repositories {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-	implementation 'com.optimizely.ab:android-sdk:5.3.0'
+	implementation 'com.optimizely.ab:android-sdk:5.4.0'
 }
 ```
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 63c8a1cc..7eda0da9 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ ext {
     build_tools_version = "35.0.0"
     min_sdk_version = 21
     target_sdk_version = 35
-    java_core_ver = "4.5.0"
+    java_core_ver = "4.6.0"
     android_logger_ver = "1.3.6"
     jacksonversion= "2.11.2"
     annotations_ver = "1.2.0"