The reward for each block in the Bitcoin network has once again been reduced, now from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Halving is perceived by market participants as a bullish sign.
The fourth halving successfully occurred in the Bitcoin network at block 840,000. The miners' reward for each block added to the blockchain has been halved - from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. As a result, the rate of issuance of new coins has slowed down, which is perceived positively by industry participants.
Block 840,000 mined on the Bitcoin network
Halving is a halving of the block reward. It occurs once every 210,000 blocks, that is, approximately once every 4 years. This is an element of tokenomics originally embedded in the Bitcoin code, thanks to which Bitcoin is considered to be a tool for protection against inflation, because its emission is finite - it is fixed and known in advance.
Bitcoin, thanks to halving, is similar in characteristics to gold, which is why it is often called digital gold. Gold also has a finite supply, although production rates may increase due to the search for new deposits. Bitcoin doesn’t have this - the rate of emergence of new coins is transparent.
Initially, miners received 50 BTC per found block every 10 minutes. After the first halving, which took place on November 28, 2012, the reward dropped to 25 BTC. On July 9, 2016, it dropped to 12.5 BTC, and on May 11, 2020, to 6.25 BTC. And on Saturday at 03:09 the next halving of the reward took place. It is believed that thanks to the halving around 2140, the emission of BTC will reach 21 million and stop completely. By that time, the network should have developed to such a scale that the only reward for miners would be the commissions that users pay for transferring coins.
The entire crypto community is actively following the halving - it is the key to Bitcoin growth in the long term.
In the above chart, yellow vertical lines mark halvings. A pattern can be seen from the chart: halving occurs approximately in the middle of the bullish cycle. The price rises until the halving itself (in anticipation of this event) and for some time after. If you follow this logic, the Bitcoin bull market after today's halving will last approximately until September-October 2025.
At the same time, some experts expect a short-term price decline after the halving, since the strategy “buy on rumors, sell on facts” may work. There is also an opinion that halving no longer has such a significant effect on supply, because most of the coins were mined in the first years of the cryptocurrency’s existence, and the current and subsequent halvings, given the number of coins already in circulation, slightly reduce the rate of emission.
