The largest cryptocurrency by market cap bitcoin went through the third in its history halving at 19:23 UTC, May 11th 2020.
The third halving reduced the mining reward from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per block.
At press time, bitcoin's price has not changed too much and is trading at $8634 (-0.25%).
Chart of the USD/BTC trading pair from EXANTE
This is not the first time such an event is happening, as it happens every four years. Bitcoin is halved once every 210,000th block is mined, and this is presumed to be completed within four years. Bitcoin has been halved twice in the past and will still be halved in the coming years.
When bitcoin was introduced back in 2009, 50 coins were released every 10 minutes; this was first halved to 25 coins and then later 12.5. The reason for this is that the total amount of Bitcoins that can exist as specified by Satoshi Nakamoto is 21 million, so the limit-reach can be delayed.
The next halving is scheduled to happen on May 9, 2024, at 03:53:03 UTC.
The California-based hedge fund Pantera Capital Management expects a big jump in bitcoin's (EXANTE: Bitcoin) price as halving arrives.
Even though in the email newsletter Pantera Capital CEO & Co-Chief Investment Officer Dan Morehead wrote that he had "no idea what’s going to happen in 99% of things," his fund forecasts bitcoin to peak at the $115 212 mark in August 2021.
Previously iHodl reported that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that bitcoin price will likely increase after the halving as historically the event has always been triggering a great supply/demand imbalance.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.