What is Bitcoin Reward Halving History?
Bitcoin, the world’s original cryptocurrency, has one pretty important feature to know about: the reward miners get for their work is not permanent, thanks to a concept called halving. Though not particularly common, it is essential to know the Bitcoin reward halving history to keep up with any predicted trends or expected falls in the price for when the event occurs.
A Bitcoin Reward Halving History Lesson
Bitcoin is just over a decade old now, and in that time, it’s had plenty of ups and downs, with highs and lows in every area you can imagine. However, one built-in function of the cryptocurrency has remained consistent: halving.
Halving is an event where the block reward for mining a new Bitcoin is cut in half; essentially, the Bitcoin miners will gain 50% less for each transaction that they can verify. Bitcoin halving is an event that occurs every 210,000 blocks, which usually ends up happening around every four years.
As there is a finite amount of Bitcoin and its supply reduces over time, Bitcoin's price can be kept stable by reducing the supply, which is why Bitcoin halving exists. When a block of Bitcoin is successfully mined, the miner receives a block reward; that is, they receive a newly minted Bitcoin. Once Bitcoin has released all 21 million supply, the miners will begin earning revenue from transaction fees paid by users.
Important Bitcoin Reward Halving Dates
It is estimated that there will be 33 halvings in total, after which the fixed price of a block reward will become smaller than one single satoshi - which is already the smallest unit of Bitcoin. So far, three halvings have already taken place.
January 3rd, 2009
A date that will go down in cryptocurrency history is the first block of a Bitcoin blockchain (commonly referred to as 'Genesis Block' or 'Block 0' that is mined by the coin's creator, a person (or group) known only as Satoshi Nakamoto. The mysterious figure set the original block reward at 50 BTC. Since Bitcoin didn't have any monetary value, there was no real incentive to participate, and Satoshi Nakamoto was almost the only miner for a year.
Everything began changing on March 17th, 2010, when Bitcoin Market became the first Bitcoin exchange, which started the push of cryptocurrency to the main stage, and a year later, in the spring of 2011, the price of Bitcoin surged past a whopping $1. Around 50% of available Bitcoins were mined in that short period before the first halving, eventually increasing from $0 to $12.
November 28th, 2012
The first Bitcoin reward halving date was November 28th, 2012, as the block reward became 25 BTC. Initially, it was relatively uneventful, having no discernible effect on Bitcoin's price, which still sat at $12 on the halving date. A few months later, at the beginning of 2013, the coin's value started to slowly but steadily grow, eventually hitting $964 one year after the halving occurred - a 7,933% increase in price in one year.
The cryptocurrency price continued to climb over the following months, clocking in at around $1,100 that autumn, followed by a prolonged drop in price, falling to just $152 per Bitcoin in January of 2015. Finally, October 2015 saw the price start to go up once again.
July 9th, 2016
By this time, the cryptocurrency community was well underway and aware of the Bitcoin reward halving history that was about to take place. This knowledge, combined with the general public awareness of Bitcoin rising, led to a slight rise in price in May, a little over a month before the halving occurred. A correction then took place in mid-June, and when the halving took place, the price was at $663. This halving dropped the block reward to 12.5.
It hovered around that price for a few months, hitting a modest $2,550 one year after the halving took place, or a 120.45% difference over the year. After that, there was a sudden spike and exponential growth, going up to over $19,000 by December 2017, which led to the first Initial Coin Offering (ICO) bubble, which increased demand for more Bitcoin.
May 11th, 2020
The third halving was on May 11th, 2020, when the price was $8,740. The Bitcoin reward halving, which dropped the block reward down to 6.25, did not affect the price immediately. The price not being impacted immediately could partially be due to the coronavirus crisis that started earlier in the year, which severely hurt the cryptocurrency's prices at the time. Despite this, the price still rose 36% in the first 100 days after halving to $11,950 and continued upward over the following year. Bitcoin hit a record high of $63,729.50 in April of 2021, followed by a modest decrease and coming out to $55,901 one year after this halving. Overall, that is a 145% difference in cost over one year.
Sometime, 2024
The next Bitcoin halving is expected to occur in 2024, where the block reward will drop down to 3.12. While the effect on the market is currently not a guarantee, being aware of this piece of Bitcoin reward halving history can help you gear up for the next one.
When does Bitcoin Reward Halving History End?
It is expected that the last of the 21 million Bitcoins will be released in 2140. It is then that the halving schedule will stop since there will be no more Bitcoins to supply. Of course, this is over a hundred years from now - meaning until then, every Bitcoin investor should be aware of Bitcoin reward halving history to save money in the future. In the meantime, many other cryptocurrencies also use halving to control supply and stability in price, so be sure to keep an eye out for changes across the market.
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