What Is a “Heartbeat” Update in the Context of a Price Feed?

A heartbeat update is a minimum time interval after which the oracle will submit a new price to the blockchain, regardless of whether the deviation threshold has been met. For example, an oracle might have a 0.5% deviation threshold OR a 1-hour heartbeat.

This ensures that even if an asset's price is extremely stable, the smart contract receives a regular, fresh update, preventing the data from becoming technically stale over long periods.