Antpool mined block 630,000 on May 11 at 19:23 UTC, triggering Bitcoin's third halving. The event cut block rewards in half, from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25, a mechanism hard-coded into the Bitcoin protoco
Antpool mined block 630,000 on May 11 at 19:23 UTC, triggering Bitcoin's third halving. The event cut block rewards in half, from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25, a mechanism hard-coded into the Bitcoin protocol from its creation.
The halving follows a schedule written into Bitcoin's source code from the start. The first 210,000 blocks awarded miners 50 bitcoins each for their work. The network halved that supply in 2012, dropping the reward to 25 bitcoins per block. The next halving in 2016 cut it to 12.5 bitcoins. This third reduction brings the reward to 6.25.
The block mined before the halving, number 629,999, went to F2pool miners. They embedded a message in its coinbase: "NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue." The headline references Federal Reserve bailout measures announced as the Coronavirus pandemic destabilized the U.S. economy and prompted massive government intervention.
This echoes Satoshi Nakamoto's decision in 2009 to embed a headline in the genesis block: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." Both messages capture moments when governments poured vast sums into financial systems. F2pool's miners chose to record the parallels between 2008 and 2020, marking the recurrence of crises and government rescue.
The halving cuts daily bitcoin supply in half. Before May 11, the network created 1,800 bitcoins per day. After the halving, that number falls to 900. With bitcoin trading at $8,600 per coin, daily mining revenue dropped from $15 million to $8 million.
Bitcoin's price held above $8,500 in the hours after the halving. The network's hash rate climbed to 121 exahashes per second, with a seven-day average of 120 EH/s, close to its all-time peak. Miners sustained these high rates despite receiving half the block rewards they had before, suggesting they expect bitcoin's value to climb in the weeks ahead.
