Bitcoin’s recent halving event, while reducing miner rewards by half, ignited a fierce competition for blockspace, resulting in the creation of some of the most valuable blocks in the cryptocurrency’s history. Notably, all of Bitcoin’s top 10 most valuable blocks, in terms of U.S. dollar value at the time of mining, have been mined since the halving, except for one, as highlighted by X user Clark Moody.
The first block mined after the halving captured $2.6 million in fees and block rewards alone, nearly securing the top spot in Bitcoin’s history. Subsequent blocks following the halving were valued between $1.3 million and $2 million, showcasing the intense battle for valuable blockspace.
Unlike an accidental overpayment of $3 million in November, which remains Bitcoin’s most valuable block, the transactions post-halving were deliberate attempts by miners to capture valuable blockspace. For instance, the miner of the first block post-halving would be entitled to one of four “epic sats,” units of Bitcoin inscribed with specific data and considered one hundred times rarer than “rare sats.”
Additionally, the deployment of Runes, a new protocol to inscribe data on the Bitcoin blockchain, further fueled the competition for blockspace. The first Rune was deployed for $430,000 as an airdrop to holders of certain Ordinals collections, with others paying hundreds of thousands to deploy their own collections.
Remarkably, 9 out of the top 10 most valuable blocks in Bitcoin’s history were mined directly following the halving event. Previously, the runner-up for the most valuable Bitcoin block resulted from a $500,000 “fat finger” error by Paxos, which was promptly returned by the mining pool that facilitated the transaction.