With the 2024 halving still about 1198 days, the stakes seem higher, perhaps because of the volatility of the trading market in 2021.
No sooner will a person start talking about the crypto world before the Bitcoin halving is mentioned. It is a major event with a significant impact on cryptocurrencies generally – and has been from the onset. The idea, factored into the design of the crypto asset by Satoshi Nakamoto, helps manage the inflation of the asset.
Unlike Ethereum, only about twenty-one million BTCs can be mined based on the design algorithm. Interestingly, estimates suggest that 98% of this will have been mined by 2030. Thus, after every 210,000 blocks, the reduction in the number of new Bitcoins that can be mined per block is triggered. Consequently, the amount of rewards earned by miners is reduced.
So far, the halvings have been greeted with significant media attention. This is particularly true of the months that lead up to the halving. From a price of $2.55 before its first halving in November 2012, BTC rose to about $1037 a year after. A similar trend continued after the second halving in July 2016, with BTC rising to $2525 exactly a year after.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the third halving happened in May 2020 with the price of BTC at $8600 and six months later, the price was over $15,420. By and large, the market has run exactly as some have predicted with prices falling just before the reductions and then rising to new heights after the halving is completed.
Bitcoin Enthusiasts Remain Excited about Halving
The reduction in the Bitcoin supply has always been greeted with excitement and speculation. The last halving was watched online by 7000 people on Bitcoin Magazine’s live stream. This was even as CoinMetrics co-founder Nic Carter, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis and Kraken content producer Pete Rizzo, celebrated the halving.
With the 2024 halving still about 1198 days and 5 hours away at the time of writing according to CoinMarketCap, the stakes seem higher, perhaps because of the volatility of the trading market in 2021, but the excitement is no lesser.
Against the current trend, many experts remain optimistic that it will an uptrend. Analyst PlanB expects the price of BTC to soar to $288,000. Senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, Mike McGlone, also predicts the market will correct for a bullish trend. Billionaire Tim Draper has also stuck to his guns about the direction the market is headed.
It’s safe to say that the jury is still out on whether this upcoming halving. The question in the mouth of many Bitcoin investors and speculators is: “Will it follow the type of growth in previous halving?”
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