On April 20, Bitcoin’s network reached block height #840,000, marking the fourth halving event. The reward for mining a block was reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
? Block #840000, the #BitcoinHalving block, was successfully mined by ViaBTC!
? Thrilled to celebrate this milestone with our dedicated miners.
? Let’s keep pushing forward on this incredible journey!
? BTC to the moon!!!#BTCHalving #ViaBTC #ViaBTCHalving pic.twitter.com/thKF0AEC7c
— ViaBTC (@ViaBTC) April 20, 2024
The block was mined by the ViaBTC pool.
Halving refers to the reduction by half of the reward miners receive for adding a new block to the blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto programmed this event into the Bitcoin network every 210,000 blocks, approximately every four years, until the total supply of 21 million coins is mined, expected around 2140.
The mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency was 86.39 T.
The price of Bitcoin, which fell to $60,000 on the morning of April 19, showed no significant movement. At the time of writing, the digital gold is trading at $63,800.
Economist and author of the seminal book “The Bitcoin Standard,” Saifedean Ammous, congratulated the crypto community on the halving.
Happy bitcoin halving day!!
For the first time in history, humans have a form of money whose supply increases by less than 1% per year.
This is a big deal because the hardness of our money is a control knob for our time preference: the degree to which we discount the future.…
— Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean) April 20, 2024
“For the first time in history, humans have a form of money whose supply increases by less than 1% per year. […] The harder the money, the slower its supply increases, the better it retains value in the future and allows for planning and securing the future,” he wrote.
According to Ammous, Bitcoin is the hardest currency in history, also being government-resistant, making it an advanced form of money. The expert emphasized that the first cryptocurrency is even better than gold.
“Whatever happens, you can be sure that your Bitcoin will never be diluted by more than 1% per year,” he noted.
Thomas Perfumo, head of strategy at cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, told The Block that the fourth halving will ensure the mining of approximately 95% of Bitcoin’s total supply.
“Additionally, the annual growth of Bitcoin’s supply will soon fall below 1% for the first time,” he added.
Binance CEO Richard Teng suggested that some miners might shift their focus to altcoins or explore alternative revenue sources to maintain balance in the sector following the halving.
Besides the halving, the price of the first cryptocurrency will also be influenced by the spot Bitcoin ETFs approved in Hong Kong in April. This was stated by Websea COO Herbert Sim to Cointelegraph.
Crypto investor Quinten Francois joked that Bitcoin enthusiasts celebrate alone because none of their friends “have a clue what a halving is.”
Bitcoiners celebrating the #Bitcoin halving alone because none of their friends have a clue what a halving is
— Quinten | 048.eth (@QuintenFrancois) April 20, 2024
Previously, analysts at 10x Research warned of a potential $5 billion Bitcoin sell-off by miners following the reward reduction. Their counterparts at JPMorgan suggested a drop in digital gold prices post-event. ForkLog explained the potential price impacts in a separate article.
In April, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel stated that the upcoming halving was already priced into Bitcoin. Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes speculated that Bitcoin might fall before and after the halving.
ForkLog discussed the future implications in a separate article.
Earlier in April, the ForkLog team hosted the AllTimeHalf 2024 online forum in honor of the halving, featuring developers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, and visionaries. Recordings are available on the YouTube channel.
We also recommend exploring the event-related research by CoinGecko and Binance.