Bitcoin Cash Undergoes Second Halving

On April 4 at 01:45 (Kyiv/MSK), Bitcoin Cash experienced its second halving at block #840,000. The block reward was reduced from 6.25 BCH to 3.125 BCH.

The block was mined by the ViaBTC pool, which received a reward of 3.156 BCH, including fees.

At the time of writing, only 13 blocks have been added to the network since the halving, with intervals exceeding an hour. The first halving of this Bitcoin fork occurred on April 8, 2020, and also led to blockchain operational issues.

In anticipation of the halving, the coin’s price experienced significant fluctuations. After a sharp rise at the end of March, it began to decline at the start of April. Following the event, the BCH rate started to recover. 

Over the past day, quotes have increased by 3.8%, and by 403% over the year (CoinGecko). The asset is trading near $640. In terms of market capitalization, the cryptocurrency has risen to 14th place with a value of $12.56 billion.

According to BTC.com, the blockchain’s hashrate increased from approximately 2.5 EH/s to 6.5 EH/s by March 31 in the month leading up to the halving. The figure plummeted to 2.98 EH/s after the block reward was halved.

In terms of mining pools, ViaBTC leads in BCH mining with nearly 15% of the total computational power over the past seven days. However, 70% of the hashrate is attributed to unidentified entities.

Experts at CoinGecko have analyzed Bitcoin’s price behavior post-halving, as the reduction in block reward for the first cryptocurrency is also set to occur in April.