Bitcoin (BTC), the most valuable cryptocurrency in the market, will experience a halving event as soon as in 14 hours. That means that on May 11, the Bitcoin network will reduce the rewards for miners from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. This could be very positive for Bitcoin in the long term considering the new issuance of BTC would be reduced by half.
Bitcoin’s Halving Event Just Hours Away
The halving event is just a few hours away and the effects on the network can be very positive in the long term. Indeed, the inflation rate of Bitcoin is going to fall to 1.80% after the halving from 3.64%. In addition to it, demand for the cryptocurrency could also increase in the coming months, which could increase the pressure on the price of Bitcoin.
At the moment, we are just 88 blocks away from the halving, according to Bitcoinblockhalf. There are going to be mined only 1,100 more BTC before the reduction in the issuance of BTC. The network will be producing just 900 BTC per day down from 1,800 now. The number of blocks generated per day will remain the same at a rate of 144 blocks. Nonetheless, in the first hours of the halving, it may take longer to generate a new block.
If the demand for Bitcoin grows, with a lower issuance of BTC, the price could move higher. Indeed, Bitcoin has moved higher after the previous halving events. BTC holders saw how Bitcoin reached new all-time highs years after each of the halvings took place. However, as the network is already larger and widely available, the main question is what will happen after the current halving.
Bitcoin miners are also going to be experiencing a shocking situation. If the price of Bitcoin doesn’t increase, we could see a small reduction in the hash rate. Miners that are not efficient may leave the market as they would immediately become unprofitable. Unless new miners are released, Bitcoin price expand or miners become more efficient, they may be hardly affected by the halving.
In the last two days, Bitcoin fell to $8,600 for a brief period of time. Now, the virtual currency is being traded around $8,670 and it has a market capitalization of almost $160 billion. Now traders are waiting for the halving and how this could affect Bitcoin’s price in the long term.
