The Bitcoin halving is expected to take place at the end of April 2024, in approximately 32 days, according to CoinMarketCap’s halving countdown.
Bitcoin halving occurs when the reward of mining a bitcoin is split in half. It occurs approximately every four years when 210,000 blocks are attached to the chain.
Bitcoin exchanges are tracked using distributed ledger technology such as blockchain. A blockchain is a distributed ledger whose records are called blocks and are linked using cryptography. Blocks are added to the chain in a process called mining.
Miners use computing power to solve complex mathematical puzzles to build the blockchain and earn rewards in the form of new bitcoin.
Mining creates the equivalent of a lottery system that prevents people from easily adding new blocks to the chain. After the halving, miners will get half as much bitcoin as a reward as mining before the halving.
Bitcoin was designed from its inception to have a capped supply of 21 million tokens.
Pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto wrote halving into Bitcoin’s code, which reduces the rate at which new Bitcoin is released into circulation.
Originally, the prize from mining was 50 bitcoins, and it has been halved three times since, according to Investopedia. It is hard to see if there has been a clear effect of previous halvings on Bitcoin’s price, with some saying it has impacted the coin’s price and others claiming that this anticipated halving was already accounted for in market pricing.
Halving may increase Bitcoin value
Halving may address inflation by increasing the coin’s scarcity and, thereby, its value.
Regulators have repeatedly warned that Bitcoin is a speculative market driven by hype and “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out). It poses real harm to investors, even as they simultaneously approve Bitcoin trading products.
