diff --git a/templates/new/_Cargo.toml b/templates/new/_Cargo.toml
index 998dac7da0447888f09e32f0bc1ff5211740316f..121f9f9f31b409dc935254998fde4612ce039678 100644
--- a/templates/new/_Cargo.toml
+++ b/templates/new/_Cargo.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ ink_env = { version = "3.0.0-rc3", default-features = false }
 ink_storage = { version = "3.0.0-rc3", default-features = false }
 ink_lang = { version = "3.0.0-rc3", default-features = false }
 
-scale = { package = "parity-scale-codec", version = "2.0.1", default-features = false, features = ["derive"] }
+scale = { package = "parity-scale-codec", version = "2.1", default-features = false, features = ["derive"] }
 scale-info = { version = "0.6.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive"], optional = true }
 
 # Should be removed once bitvecto-rs/bitvec#105 is resolved