Key Points
- Bitcoin’s upcoming halving event is less than 100 blocks away.
- Once the halving occurs, the subsidy reward for miners will drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
The next halving event for Bitcoin (BTC) is rapidly approaching, with less than 100 blocks remaining before it occurs. The estimated countdown is calculated based on the average block generation time of Bitcoin, which is approximately 10 minutes. The halving block height is expected to be reached just after midnight UTC on April 20.
Bitcoin Halving Explained
Halving events in Bitcoin’s protocol occur automatically every 210,000 blocks, which is approximately every four years. Once a halving event happens, miners receive 50% fewer bitcoins as a reward for mining a block of transactions and adding it to the blockchain. However, miners continue to earn additional rewards from transaction fees for each block they mine.
Historically, there have been three halving events in the history of Bitcoin, reducing its block subsidy inflation from 50 BTC to 25 BTC in 2012, then to 12.5 BTC in 2016 and 6.25 BTC at the last halving on May 11, 2020. The upcoming halving will see the subsidy reward for miners on the network drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. Ultimately, there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins in existence.
Post-Halving Predictions
Analysts at Bernstein anticipate Bitcoin to continue its bullish trajectory after the halving, with a projected target of $150,000 by the end of 2025. However, Coinify CEO Rikke Staer suggests the halving could be a “sell the news” event, as less efficient miners may be compelled to sell their existing Bitcoin holdings, potentially overwhelming demand.
While miner revenues have increased this year due to the rise in Bitcoin’s price, the impact of the halving on less efficient mining operations and overall network metrics remains to be seen. As of now, Bitcoin is trading at $64,776, marking a 6% increase in the last 24 hours. It had briefly fallen below $60,000 earlier today due to reports of Israeli missiles hitting a site in Iran, but it has since rebounded strongly.