Key Points
- Bitcoin’s next halving event is predicted to happen in approximately 50 days or 7,300 blocks.
- Historically, Bitcoin halvings have been linked with significant price fluctuations in the cryptocurrency.
The next halving event for Bitcoin (BTC) might be only 50 days away, based on estimates from CoinGecko and OKLink. This countdown is calculated using the average block generation time of Bitcoin, which is 10 minutes. This sets the potential date for the event around April 21.
Halving Event Impact
During a halving event, the reward for miners on the Bitcoin network decreases from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. These halving events are programmed to happen automatically every 210,000 blocks, which is approximately every four years. After a halving event, miners receive 50% fewer bitcoins as a reward for each block of transactions they mine and add to the blockchain. They continue to earn additional transaction fees for each block mined as normal.
So far, Bitcoin has had three halving events. The first reduced the block reward 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. In the long term, there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins in existence. The halving events will continue until the last bitcoin is expected to be mined around the year 2140. After this, miners will only earn from transaction fees.
Market Fluctuations and Halving Events
Historically, Bitcoin halvings have been linked with significant price fluctuations in the cryptocurrency. While not a direct cause-and-effect relationship, these events have often preceded substantial bull runs in the bitcoin market. This time round, bitcoin’s price is closer to all-time highs at this point before a halving event than ever before — hitting a high of $64,000 earlier this week to come within 10% of November 2021’s record of around $69,000.
Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of federally regulated crypto bank Anchorage Digital, said that the new buyers in this cycle represent a broader group of traditional financial institutions than before. He added that after seeing the approval and complexities addressed by top asset managers to issue new financial products like spot bitcoin ETFs, institutions that were on the sidelines are now taking action and leading this cycle.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $61,924. Bitcoin rose nearly 45% in February — the largest monthly percentage gain since December 2020.