Bitcoin Celebrates 11th Anniversary of First Halving
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, experienced its first-ever halving 11 years ago today. As the community celebrates the anniversary of the first Bitcoin halving, it’s timely to revisit some of Bitcoin’s historical milestones ahead of the next halving expected in April 2024.
Historical Milestones of Bitcoin
The first Bitcoin transaction occurred nearly 15 years ago on Jan. 3, 2009, a few months after the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, published the Bitcoin white paper in October 2008.
On Nov. 28, 2012, or three years and ten months after Bitcoin’s initial block was mined, the first-ever halving event took place. The halving is specifically available on the Bitcoin Core GitHub repository on the validation.cpp file, which indicates that the miner’s block subsidy is “cut in half every 210,000 blocks, which will occur every four years.”
The Bitcoin halving mechanism had been programmed into the BTC mining algorithm to counteract inflation by maintaining scarcity. Before the first halving occurred, miners were compensated with as much as 50 BTC per block. After the first halving event in 2012, the subsidy was slashed to 25 BTC, followed by the second halving in 2016, which reduced the subsidy to 12.5 BTC. The most recent Bitcoin halving occurred in 2020, cutting the block subsidy from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
Impact of Bitcoin Halvings
As Bitcoin halvings significantly increase the cryptocurrency’s scarcity, the Bitcoin price cycle has been historically impacted by halvings. Just a year after its first-ever halving, Bitcoin had risen to nearly $1,000, while the second halving triggered a 350% surge during the year after the event, with BTC subsequently rallying to all-time highs of nearly $20,000 in December 2017. In the aftermath of the third Bitcoin halving, BTC surged as high as $69,000 in November 2021.
The anniversary of the first Bitcoin halving comes as the cryptocurrency community awaits the fourth Bitcoin halving, which is now expected to occur on April 17, 2024. Many Bitcoin advocates are especially bullish on the Bitcoin price in 2024 amid growing expectations that United States securities regulators could finally approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Future of Bitcoin Halvings
The 2024 halving won’t be the last one, though. Bitcoin miner reward is expected to be halved 34 times until it reaches 0 BTC after all 21 million Bitcoin are mined. Based on the current schedule, the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins will be reached around 2140.
As Bitcoin enthusiasts mark the 11th anniversary of the first halving, the cryptocurrency continues to show resilience and a potential for future growth as it looks forward to the next halving event in 2024.
I have over 10 years of experience in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. I have attended numerous conferences and events around the world, and my work has been featured in major publications such as CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine, and Yahoo Finance.
