Is the Bitcoin Halving Coming Sooner Than We Thought?
The next Bitcoin halving, an event where the reward for mining a block is cut in half, was expected to occur sometime between late March and May of 2024. However, new hash rate data show that the next halving could occur much sooner…
And this could have major implications for the price of Bitcoin.
We’ll get to that in a moment. First…
Bitcoin’s hash rate has just reached new all-time highs. For BTC, its hash rate is a measure of the number of times, per second, that miners on the network hash data to verify transactions for which they get rewarded.
A high hash rate is considered favorable to the market as it indicates that more miners are verifying transactions. The more miners involved in the network, the higher the likelihood they believe BTC’s price will rise.
Afterall, why get involved in Bitcoin mining, which is highly complex and incredibly expensive, if you’re not convinced its price will rise?
Now, back in March, when a single Bitcoin was trading between $40,000 and $45,000, the BTC hash rate was around 209.7 million tera-hashes per second.
Today, its hash rate has increased by 34% to a record 281.79 million.
Clearly, despite its recent price depression, the Bitcoin mining industry seems to believe good things are on the horizon… and are ramping up their hash rates.
And because of this incredible increase in computing power, it’s now believed the next Bitcoin halving could occur as early as the fourth quarter of next year…
Perhaps up to seven months sooner than previously expected.
According to Cryptonews.net, “The date for the next bitcoin halving has been pulled forward as the hash rate has hit a new all-time high. The bitcoin hash rate hit a raw value of 281.79 million on Sept. 11, which indicates that more people are jumping on board and is a good sign for the health of the network. The halving date was expected sometime in May of 2024, but at current levels, it is slated for the last quarter of 2023…
“The previous halving took place in May 2020, to much celebration. Between that event and the halving that took place in 2016, bitcoin trading volume increased by 50x. There was some concern that the halving would result in decreased miner involvement, but those fears were dispelled.”
Of course, since the last halving, on May 11, 2020, Bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed to as high as $69k per BTC; although it has now settled to near $21k, representing a still strong 144% increase in value in just 2.3 years.
With a maximum supply of just 21 million BTC, the upcoming halving, no matter when it occurs, will make new Bitcoin even more rare and difficult to mine… and could cause its price to rise dramatically once again.
Read more about the increased Bitcoin hash rate, HERE