The block reward is what a minerMiningThe process in which computers compete to solve a puzzle so they can add the next block to the blockchain and earn new bitcoin and fees. receives for finding a new block and adding it to the blockchain. In Bitcoin it has two parts: new bitcoin created with the block, and the network feesNetwork feeA fee paid to a crypto network, not to a bank or company, for including your transaction in a block. from the transactions in it. Since 20 April 2024, the new bitcoin have come to 3.125 per block.
In everyday use, the term often refers only to the new bitcoin. That part is also called the block subsidy.
Where does the reward come from?
The first transaction in every block is a special one. It has no sender. Instead it creates new bitcoin and pays them, along with the fees, to whoever found the block. This is how new bitcoin enter circulation without any central bank issuing them.
The amount is fixed in Bitcoin's rules. If a miner tries to pay themselves more, the network's nodes reject the block. Miners also have to wait 100 blocks, about 17 hours, before they can use the new bitcoin.
How has it changed?
In the early years, from the genesis blockGenesis blockThe first block in a blockchain; Bitcoin's genesis block was created on 3 January 2009 and contains a headline from The Times. in 2009, the new bitcoin came to 50 per block. Every 210,000 blocks the amount is cut in half, in what is called the HalvingHalvingThe event roughly every four years when the number of new bitcoin that miners receive for each block is cut in half.. The next halving will happen at block 1,050,000 and is expected in 2028. The new bitcoin will then drop to 1.5625 per block.
What to keep in mind
Today the new bitcoin make up by far the largest part of the block reward. Around the year 2140, issuance of new bitcoin will stop, and from then on miners will earn only fees. Networks that use proof of stake have no miners. There, validatorsValidatorA participant on a proof-of-stake network who locks up their own crypto as a stake to create and check blocks in return for rewards. receive the rewards instead.
Everything in Myntkaup Learn is written and regularly reviewed by the Myntkaup editorial team. It is for education and is not investment advice. Editorial policy. Updated 18 October 2026.