In the world of cryptocurrencies, an event occurs every few years that is of great importance for the entire cryptocurrency industry. This event is not unexpected but has severe and long-term consequences. This is the Bitcoin halving.
What is Bitcoin halving?
New Bitcoins are created on the blockchain as a reward for keeping it running by validating transactions and adding them to blocks. This process is called mining. The miner who is the first to solve a complex mathematical problem adds transactions to a block and receives a reward, including a certain fixed number of newly created bitcoins and a commission for transactions included in the block. A new block is added approximately every 10 minutes. Thus, the existing number of Bitcoins increases by a certain amount every 10 minutes.
A Bitcoin halving is an algorithm-programmed event that cuts the number of new coins in the block reward mentioned above in half. When Bitcoin was first launched, the block reward was 50 BTC. The halving has happened three times since then, so the current block reward is 6.25 BTC.
Bitcoin halving dates
According to the Bitcoin algorithm, there will be 33 halvings, after which the fixed portion of the block reward will become less than 1 satoshi (the smallest unit of Bitcoin). Essentially, it will be zero. Three halvings have already taken place. Here you can find info about the halving in 2024. Let’s take a closer look at the list of halving dates.
Bitcoin halving in 2012
The first halving occurred on November 28, 2012. At first, the halving did not noticeably impact the price of Bitcoin. However, at the beginning of 2013, the coin’s value began to rise steadily, and in April, it gave way to a correction and continued again in the fall of 2013, ending above $1,100. This was followed by a long price decline, which dropped to $152 on January 14, 2015. Finally, in October 2015, 9 months before the next halving, steady growth began again.
Bitcoin halving in 2016
The second halving occurred on July 9, 2016. The crypto community was looking forward to this date. These expectations and Bitcoin’s popularity and acceptance led to a noticeable price increase in late May, a month and a half before the halving. However, a correction occurred in mid-June, and soon after the halving, the price fell again, reaching its local minimum of May levels.
As it turned out later, this was only a short-term correction. The bullish trend soon continued and grew exponentially. This growth peaked on December 17, 2017, when the price reached its all-time high of $19,700. After this, a long, bearish trend began.
There were several reasons for this price jump; It’s impossible to say what role the halving played. In 2017, the popularity and acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies proliferated, attracting many new participants to the cryptocurrency market. This, in turn, created the ICO bubble, further increasing the demand for Bitcoin as many ICOs adopted it.
Bitcoin halving in 2020
The third halving, which occurred on May 11, 2020, like the previous Bitcoin halving, did not cause an immediate price increase. The rally began at the earlier halving dates at the beginning of the year, but the coronavirus crisis in March led to a collapse in Bitcoin’s price.
This makes estimating how much of the halving is already factored into the price even more challenging. At the same time, the current number of mined coins is relatively tiny compared to the total volume of bitcoins traded, and it is unlikely that a relatively small drop in supply will cause a significant price increase. Thus, the possible further increase in the price of Bitcoin will be much more affected by the rise in demand than a decrease in supply.
Forecasts for Bitcoin price decline during halvings
As the halving date approaches, there is an apparent surge in price predictions on various online platforms and social circles related to cryptocurrency. However, it is essential to note that the crypto market is very volatile and unpredictable, which makes it possible to justify any price range for BTC. Therefore, all price predictions should be taken with significant skepticism and considered a source of entertainment only.
However, it is interesting to analyze the percentage increase in the price of BTC during past BTC halving.
- Between the first and second halvings, the initial price of BTC was approximately $12. However, it skyrocketed to over $1,200, representing a mind-blowing 10,000% increase.
- Between the second and third halvings, BTC remained around $650. However, after the halving, the value of the cryptocurrency skyrocketed to almost $19,000, a whopping increase of over 2,900%.
- The latest halving saw the price of BTC increase by about 750%, which may seem modest compared to previous halving. The cryptocurrency started at $9,000 and rose to almost $70,000.
