diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index e85ec109fd..17a9c5d6ef 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "6.8.0"
+  ".": "6.8.1"
 }
diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 1ccf5eca7e..347dcd61e9 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
+## [6.8.1](https://github.com/mongodb/node-mongodb-native/compare/v6.8.0...v6.8.1) (2024-09-06)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **NODE-6355:** respect utf8 validation option when iterating cursors ([#4220](https://github.com/mongodb/node-mongodb-native/issues/4220)) ([886cefb](https://github.com/mongodb/node-mongodb-native/commit/886cefb4197e2747f26eeb680a9d0a779d6d28f1))
+
 ## [6.8.0](https://github.com/mongodb/node-mongodb-native/compare/v6.7.0...v6.8.0) (2024-06-27)
 
 
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 538973bf4f..99107e1d07 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "mongodb",
-  "version": "6.8.0",
+  "version": "6.8.1",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "mongodb",
-      "version": "6.8.0",
+      "version": "6.8.1",
       "license": "Apache-2.0",
       "dependencies": {
         "@mongodb-js/saslprep": "^1.1.5",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ca5286251f..dff382f908 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "mongodb",
-  "version": "6.8.0",
+  "version": "6.8.1",
   "description": "The official MongoDB driver for Node.js",
   "main": "lib/index.js",
   "files": [