On April 20, at block height #840,000, a significant event occurred in the Bitcoin network — the fourth halving. As a result, the reward for each block found decreased from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, with the block being successfully mined by the ViaBTC mining pool. Halving, a programmatically set reduction in rewards for miners, happens every 210,000 blocks and will continue until the maximum number of Bitcoins — 21 million, is presumably reached by the year 2140.
Before the halving, the price of Bitcoin fell to $60,000, but significant dynamics were not observed post-event — at the time of writing, the digital gold was trading at approximately $63,800. The mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency at that moment was 86.39 trillion.
Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard,” expressed the opinion that Bitcoin is the hardest form of money in history, with its supply increasing by less than 1% per year. This makes it an excellent means of preserving value for the long term. Thomas Perfumo, head of the strategic department of the Kraken crypto exchange, added that after this halving, about 95% of all Bitcoins will have been mined, which will reduce the annual supply growth to less than 1%.
After the halving, some miners may shift their focus to altcoins or look for alternative sources of income to maintain their financial stability, as suggested by Binance CEO Richard Teng. Thus, the halving affects not only miners but also the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, shaping investors’ strategies and influencing market price dynamics.
