$BTC The Bitcoin network on Friday evening completed its fourth "halving," reducing the rewards earned by miners to 3.125 bitcoins from 6.25.

The price of bitcoin has been volatile ahead of the event, and fell about 4% this week to trade around $64,100, according to Coin Metrics.

Mechanically, the halving itself shouldn't affect the price of bitcoin in the short term, but many investors are expecting big gains in the months ahead, based on the cryptocurrency's performance after previous halvings. After the 2012, 2016 and 2020 halvings, the bitcoin price ran up about 93x, 30x and 8x, respectively, from its halving day price to its cycle top. Bitcoin halvings and cycle highs

The table shows the price of bitcoin at its three halvings, along with the maximum price for each cycle.

Table with 5 columns and 3 rows.

Halving date Price at halving Cycle max price Max return

Cycle 1 (2012 Nov 28 $12.50) ($1,163

2013 Nov 29)

93x

Cycle 2 (2016 Jul 9 $638.51 ) ($19,333

2017 Dec 15)

30x

Cycle 3 (2020 May 11 $8,475.00) ( $68,982.20 2021 Nov 10)