Article source: Golden Finance
Author: Helen Partz, CoinTelegraph
Compiled by: Wu Zhu, Golden Finance
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, having experienced its first halving event 12 years ago, reducing the block reward from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
Since then, the Bitcoin block reward—the incentive for crypto miners to verify Bitcoin transactions and secure the network—has been reduced to 3.125 BTC after three halvings, greatly limiting the supply of newly mined BTC entering the market.
On the 12th anniversary of Bitcoin's halving, Bitcoin's trading price is close to the historical high of around $99,600 set on November 22, partly due to Bitcoin's fourth halving event in April.
Bitcoin halving date and block reward. Source: BitDegree
As the community celebrates the first anniversary of Bitcoin's halving, this article revisits some key historical milestones of BTC and changes in the mining ecosystem.
There are still 1.2 million Bitcoins available for mining
As of November 27, the circulating supply of BTC is 19.8 million, with 1.2 million left to mine until reaching the capped supply of 21 million.
Bitcoin's supply cap is 21 million, which is one of the fundamental principles of the Bitcoin network, aimed at providing asset scarcity.
Total circulating Bitcoin. Source: Blockchain.com
Although the quantity of 1.2 million BTC is small relative to the amount of Bitcoin already mined, due to the reduction in rewards and the increase in mining difficulty, the process of mining the remaining BTC will require miners to spend more time and effort.
According to data from MinerStat, the current Bitcoin mining difficulty rate is 1.023 trillion, which first broke the 1 trillion mark on November 5. The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is expected to take place on December 2.
Bitcoin miners have not yet surrendered, and Bitcoin has set new price records
Despite the challenges posed by high Bitcoin mining difficulty and low block rewards, Bitcoin miners have not yet surrendered due to the continued rise of the cryptocurrency market.
According to CoinGecko data, as of the writing of this article, Bitcoin's trading price is $95,364, up 154% over the past year. Since the last Bitcoin halving event on April 20, 2024, the price of this cryptocurrency has also surged significantly, increasing by about 45%.
According to a report from European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares, despite the rise of Bitcoin in 2024 leading to increasing block rewards in USD terms, Bitcoin miners have been taking measures to reduce costs and adopt artificial intelligence.
CoinShares stated in an October mining report: 'The Bitcoin mining industry is facing significant challenges this year, with both revenue and hash prices declining.'
In July, when the BTC trading price was around $56,500, Bitcoin mining company TeraWulf considered merging due to lower profit margins.
Some major cryptocurrency mining companies such as Marathon Digital have sold a large amount of mined BTC after the fourth halving this year, citing efficiency improvements and maintaining competitiveness. Marathon also shifted to actively purchasing Bitcoin and announced the issuance of $250 million in convertible preferred notes in August.
On the other hand, El Salvador is ramping up efforts to find alternative Bitcoin mining methods using geothermal volcanic energy.
