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The Final Week Leading Up to #bitcoinhalving
Fourth Halving: Bitcoin Block Subsidy to Drop from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC on April 20th
Nadia Petrova Nadia PetrovaAuthor Verified Apr 13, 20242 min. Read Key Points
In a week, Bitcoin's miner subsidy incentive will halve from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is at an all-time high before the halving, signaling more activity.
The next Bitcoin halving event is in its last week, with 1,000 blocks left.
Bitcoin's typical block creation time is 10 minutes, thus the halving should happen about 9 a.m. UTC on April 20.
Halving occurrences are scheduled every 210,000 blocks, or four years.
Miners get 50% less bitcoins for each block of transactions they mine and contribute to the network after a halving event.
Miners still get transaction fee incentives for each block.
Three halving occurrences have reduced Bitcoin block subsidy inflation from 50 BTC to 25 BTC in 2012, 12.5 BTC in 2016, and 6.25 BTC in 2020.
Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist.
Halving occurrences will continue until the final bitcoin is minted in 2140. From then on, miners will only collect transaction fees.
Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 3.9% this week to an all-time high before the halving.
This suggests miners are raising their hash rate before the block subsidy reward cut.
Mining a new block in Bitcoin is tough.
It adjusts every 2016 blocks, or two weeks, to find a new block every 10 minutes regardless of active miners.
Bitcoin's hash rate, a measure of miners' computing power, set a seven-day moving average record high of 629.75 EH/s.
Since Bitcoin's price has risen this year, miner incomes have grown, but the effect of the subsidy cut on less efficient mining operations and network metrics remains unknown.
These occurrences generally precede large Bitcoin bull runs, while there is no clear cause-and-effect link.
Two of three prior halvings caused prices to rise one and three months later, according to analysts. In all three halvings, prices rose nine and 12 months later.
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