diff --git a/localPackages/BitFoundation/Sources/BitFoundation/Data+Hex.swift b/localPackages/BitFoundation/Sources/BitFoundation/Data+Hex.swift
index e847b2e2..cbebcc0c 100644
--- a/localPackages/BitFoundation/Sources/BitFoundation/Data+Hex.swift
+++ b/localPackages/BitFoundation/Sources/BitFoundation/Data+Hex.swift
@@ -8,12 +8,44 @@
 
 import struct Foundation.Data
 
+/// Lowercase hex digits used by `hexEncodedString()`.
+private let hexDigits: [UInt8] = Array("0123456789abcdef".utf8)
+
+/// Maps an ASCII byte to its hex nibble value, or nil for non-hex characters.
+/// Accepts both lowercase and uppercase hex digits.
+@inline(__always)
+private func hexNibble(_ ascii: UInt8) -> UInt8? {
+    switch ascii {
+    case UInt8(ascii: "0")...UInt8(ascii: "9"):
+        return ascii - UInt8(ascii: "0")
+    case UInt8(ascii: "a")...UInt8(ascii: "f"):
+        return ascii - UInt8(ascii: "a") + 10
+    case UInt8(ascii: "A")...UInt8(ascii: "F"):
+        return ascii - UInt8(ascii: "A") + 10
+    default:
+        return nil
+    }
+}
+
 public extension Data {
+    /// Lowercase hex representation of the bytes.
+    ///
+    /// Lookup-table based: this sits on the hot BLE receive path (it is called
+    /// several times per received packet via `PeerID(hexData:)`), where the
+    /// previous per-byte `String(format: "%02x", _)` implementation spent most
+    /// of its time re-parsing the format string through Foundation.
     func hexEncodedString() -> String {
-        if self.isEmpty {
+        if isEmpty {
             return ""
         }
-        return self.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined()
+        var output = [UInt8](repeating: 0, count: count * 2)
+        var i = 0
+        for byte in self {
+            output[i] = hexDigits[Int(byte >> 4)]
+            output[i + 1] = hexDigits[Int(byte & 0x0F)]
+            i += 2
+        }
+        return String(decoding: output, as: UTF8.self)
     }
 
     /// Initialize Data from a hex string.
@@ -28,28 +60,28 @@ public extension Data {
             hex = String(hex.dropFirst(2))
         }
 
+        let ascii = Array(hex.utf8)
+
         // Reject odd-length strings
-        guard hex.count % 2 == 0 else {
+        guard ascii.count % 2 == 0 else {
             return nil
         }
 
-        // Reject empty strings
-        guard !hex.isEmpty else {
+        // Accept empty strings
+        guard !ascii.isEmpty else {
             self = Data()
             return
         }
 
-        let len = hex.count / 2
-        var data = Data(capacity: len)
-        var index = hex.startIndex
-
-        for _ in 0..<len {
-            let nextIndex = hex.index(index, offsetBy: 2)
-            guard let byte = UInt8(String(hex[index..<nextIndex]), radix: 16) else {
+        var data = Data(capacity: ascii.count / 2)
+        var index = 0
+        while index < ascii.count {
+            guard let high = hexNibble(ascii[index]),
+                  let low = hexNibble(ascii[index + 1]) else {
                 return nil
             }
-            data.append(byte)
-            index = nextIndex
+            data.append((high << 4) | low)
+            index += 2
         }
 
         self = data
diff --git a/localPackages/BitFoundation/Tests/BitFoundationTests/DataHexTests.swift b/localPackages/BitFoundation/Tests/BitFoundationTests/DataHexTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4d186ff3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/localPackages/BitFoundation/Tests/BitFoundationTests/DataHexTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+//
+// DataHexTests.swift
+// bitchatTests
+//
+// This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.
+// For more information, see <https://unlicense.org>
+//
+
+import Testing
+import Foundation
+@testable import BitFoundation
+
+struct DataHexTests {
+
+    // MARK: - Encoding
+
+    @Test func encode_knownVectors() {
+        #expect(Data().hexEncodedString() == "")
+        #expect(Data([0x00]).hexEncodedString() == "00")
+        #expect(Data([0x0f]).hexEncodedString() == "0f")
+        #expect(Data([0xf0]).hexEncodedString() == "f0")
+        #expect(Data([0xff]).hexEncodedString() == "ff")
+        #expect(Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]).hexEncodedString() == "deadbeef")
+        #expect(Data([0x01, 0x23, 0x45, 0x67, 0x89, 0xab, 0xcd, 0xef]).hexEncodedString() == "0123456789abcdef")
+    }
+
+    @Test func encode_allByteValues_matchesFormatReference() {
+        let all = Data((0...255).map { UInt8($0) })
+        let reference = (0...255).map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined()
+        #expect(all.hexEncodedString() == reference)
+    }
+
+    @Test func encode_worksOnDataSlices() {
+        let data = Data([0xaa, 0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef, 0xbb])
+        let slice = data.dropFirst().dropLast()
+        #expect(slice.hexEncodedString() == "deadbeef")
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Decoding
+
+    @Test func decode_knownVectors() {
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "deadbeef") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "DEADBEEF") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "DeAdBeEf") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "00") == Data([0x00]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "0123456789abcdef") == Data([0x01, 0x23, 0x45, 0x67, 0x89, 0xab, 0xcd, 0xef]))
+    }
+
+    @Test func decode_handlesPrefixAndWhitespace() {
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "0xdeadbeef") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "0XDEADBEEF") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "  deadbeef\n") == Data([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]))
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "") == Data())
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "0x") == Data())
+    }
+
+    @Test func decode_rejectsInvalidInput() {
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "abc") == nil)        // odd length
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "zz") == nil)         // non-hex characters
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "0xg1") == nil)       // non-hex after prefix
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "+f") == nil)         // sign characters are not hex
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "-0") == nil)
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "a\u{00e9}") == nil)  // non-ASCII
+        #expect(Data(hexString: "de ad") == nil)      // interior whitespace
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Round trip
+
+    @Test func roundTrip_randomLengths() {
+        for length in [0, 1, 2, 3, 8, 16, 31, 32, 33, 64, 255, 1024] {
+            let data = Data((0..<length).map { _ in UInt8.random(in: .min ... .max) })
+            let hex = data.hexEncodedString()
+            #expect(hex.count == length * 2)
+            #expect(Data(hexString: hex) == data)
+            #expect(Data(hexString: hex.uppercased()) == data)
+        }
+    }
+}