diff --git a/dbt/adapters/athena/__version__.py b/dbt/adapters/athena/__version__.py
index 037ac1fa..6aaa73b8 100644
--- a/dbt/adapters/athena/__version__.py
+++ b/dbt/adapters/athena/__version__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-version = "1.8.0rc1"
+version = "1.8.0"
diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index 8942f6c9..11274383 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 autoflake~=2.3
 black~=24.4
 boto3-stubs[s3]~=1.34
-dbt-tests-adapter~=1.8.0rc1
+dbt-tests-adapter~=1.8.0
 flake8~=7.0
 Flake8-pyproject~=1.2
 isort~=5.13
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f19cbd83..7c8718c1 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ def _get_package_version() -> str:
     install_requires=[
         "dbt-common>=1.0.0b2,<2.0",
         "dbt-adapters>=1.0.0b2,<2.0",
+        # add dbt-core to ensure backwards compatibility of installation, this is not a functional dependency
+        "dbt-core>=1.8.0",
         "boto3>=1.28",
         "boto3-stubs[athena,glue,lakeformation,sts]>=1.28",
         "pyathena>=2.25,<4.0",