Halving

Halving is not unique to Bitcoin, but Bitcoin's version is the one that shaped how the whole industry talks about supply shocks. Written into the protocol from the start, it fires automatically every 210,000 blocks, roughly four years, cutting the newly minted coins paid to miners for each block without any vote, upgrade, or human decision involved.

Bitcoin's halvings have cut the block reward step by step: November 2012 (50 to 25 BTC), July 2016 (25 to 12.5 BTC), May 2020 (12.5 to 6.25 BTC), and April 2024 (6.25 to 3.125 BTC). The next is projected around April 2028 at block height 1,050,000, when the reward drops to 1.5625 BTC. This step-down pattern continues until roughly the year 2140, when the last of the 21 million Bitcoin supply is issued and miners rely entirely on transaction fees for revenue.

The economic logic is straightforward: by design, fewer new coins reach the market over time, so if demand holds steady or grows, scarcity increases. Past halvings have often been followed by strong price rallies within 12 to 18 months, though the size of those gains has shrunk with each cycle, and correlation is not the same as causation given how many other factors move markets.

Halving events also stress-test miner economics directly. Operations with high electricity costs or older hardware can become unprofitable overnight, sometimes triggering a temporary drop in network hash rate until weaker miners shut down and difficulty adjusts. A handful of other proof-of-work coins copy Bitcoin's halving mechanism, though few command the same market attention.