Block Subsidy
The newly minted BTC portion of a miner's block reward, which halves every 210,000 blocks.
The block subsidy is the new Bitcoin a miner receives for adding a valid block to the chain. It's the only mechanism by which new BTC enter circulation - every Bitcoin that has ever existed was first paid out as a block subsidy.
As of October 2026 the subsidy is 3.125 BTC per block, set after the April 2024 halving. It will halve again to 1.5625 BTC around April 2028, and continues halving every 210,000 blocks until the subsidy rounds to zero around the year 2140.
The subsidy is paid via the coinbase transaction - a special transaction at the start of each block with no inputs that pays the miner whatever the protocol allows. If a miner tries to pay themselves more than the protocol-defined subsidy plus collected fees, every other node on the network rejects the block. The 21 million cap is enforced this way, one block at a time, by every full node on Earth.
Together with transaction fees, the subsidy makes up the block reward - the total compensation a miner gets for finding a block. In the year to October 2026, fees were about 0.6% of the total (about 6.5% in 2024). When the subsidy reaches zero around 2140, fees will be all of it. See the Mining rabbit hole for the long version, or the Halvings rabbit hole for when each subsidy cut happens.
Key takeaways
- Starts at 50 BTC per block and halves roughly every four years
- Ensures a maximum supply of 21 million BTC
- Coupled with fees to maintain miner incentives long-term
Related chapters
Corrected
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Was: The entry said fees are typically 3 to 10 percent of the block reward.
Now: Fees were about 0.6 percent of the total in the year to October 2026, and about 6.5 percent in 2024. Details
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Related terms (10)
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