Main Events of the Year: The Fourth Bitcoin Halving

On April 20, 2024, the fourth halving occurred in the Bitcoin network, resulting in the mining speed of BTC being halved. Instead of 6.25 coins, miners now mine 3.125 every ten minutes.

Halvings are necessary to maintain the value of the largest cryptocurrency in the market. They occur every 210,000 mined blocks - approximately every four years. If the operating speed of the BTC network remains the same, the last halving will take place in 2140.

As the reward for mining a block decreases, the rate at which coins enter the market also declines. Thus, halving creates an artificial scarcity at the same level of demand. For more details on how all this works, read our separate article.

The price of Bitcoin hardly reacted to the halving. For a long time, the cryptocurrency traded near the $64,000 mark.

However, after each reduction in BTC mining speed, it typically set a new historical maximum. For example, after the halving on November 28, 2012, Bitcoin established a new record on November 30, 2013, at $1,154. This means it took the cryptocurrency 367 days to reach a new ATH.