Investors are closely watching bitcoin’s upcoming halving, which is expected to happen in April, as history has shown the cryptocurrency usually sees significant price appreciation in the wake of halvings.
The largest crypto
BTCUSD,
has gained more than 20% so far this year to around $52,000, building on a 150% gain in 2023, according to CoinDesk data. It is still off about 25% from its all-time high of $68,990, hit in 2021.
However, some analysts are expecting the next bitcoin halving to send the crypto to a new all-time high.
Halving is a mechanism written in the blockchain’s algorithm to control the supply of bitcoin, which has a cap of 21 million. At halvings, the reward for bitcoin mining is cut in half, meaning that miners will receive 50% fewer bitcoins for verifying transactions.
Halvings are scheduled to happen after every 210,000 blocks are mined, or about every four years, until the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins are all released.
The next halving is estimated to happen on April 19, though the exact time is subject to change, according to bitcoin investment platform Swan Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s block reward is expected to be cut from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoins in the next halving.
Bitcoin has gone through three halvings in its history, and has rallied in the months after each halving.
The first halving happened on Nov. 28, 2012, when bitcoin traded at around $12. It rose to $964 a year later, according to data from Swan Bitcoin.
Bitcoin traded at around $640 when the second halving happened on July 9, 2016, according to CoinDesk and Dow Jones Market Data. It rose 40% in the six months after the event and had logged a 296% gain one year later. Bitcoin reached a cyclical peak of $19,752 on Dec. 17, 2017.
When bitcoin had its third halving on May 11, 2020, the crypto traded at around $8,750. It gained 79.7% in the six months after the halving and had risen 547.7% one year after the event. On Nov. 10, 2021, bitcoin hit its all-time high at $68,990.90.
