On the night of April 19-20, Bitcoin went through the fourth halving in its history after the publication of the 840,000th block. It happened approximately at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Halving is the moment when the mining reward is halved.
This event prompted the crypto community to look forward to what will happen next with the price of Bitcoin, which some predicted would rise to $250,000.
Currently, according to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is worth $64.2 thousand, which is 0.38% more than 24 hours ago. And its capitalization is $1.264 trillion.
Bitcoin’s share of the crypto market is 54.4% with a crypto market capitalization of $2.37 trillion (+4.39%).
Starting today, Bitcoin miners will receive 3.125 BTC per mined block, up from 6.25 BTC previously.
This is a programmed process in the Bitcoin protocol that occurs every 210,000 mined blocks, which equates to roughly every four years.
The last three halvings took place in 2012, 2016, and 2020, leading to a significant drop in mining rewards over time. The first Bitcoin halving took place in 2012, when the block mining reward was reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
The primary purpose of Bitcoin halving is to manage scarcity and regulate the inflationary supply of Bitcoin. The mechanism was built into the code by the founder of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
By cutting the mining reward in half, this process actually slows down the rate at which new bitcoins are created.
The system will run until around 2140, when all Bitcoin has been mined.
Major Bitcoin miners are gearing up for this event. Marathon Digital recently announced its plans to acquire a 200-megawatt (MW) Bitcoin mining complex in Texas for $87.3 million.
Meanwhile, in December 2023, rival Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms purchased 66,560 mining rigs from maker MicroBT in one of the largest hashrate expansions in the firm’s history.
