What was the date of the second Bitcoin halving?

The second Bitcoin halving took place on 9 July 2016.

A halving cuts the number of new bitcoins awarded to the miner of each valid block by half. Bitcoin’s rules schedule this reduction every 210,000 blocks, so the event is driven by block height rather than by a fixed calendar date. The 2016 halving occurred at block 420,000.

Before the event, miners received a 25 BTC block subsidy. Afterward, the reward fell to 12.5 BTC per block, slowing the rate at which new coins entered circulation while preserving Bitcoin’s programmed supply limit.

The date is sometimes reported differently because blocks are not mined at perfectly regular ten-minute intervals and time zones can shift the local calendar date. Dates such as 10 July refer to some time-zone presentations, but the standard historical date is 9 July 2016.