What Is Halving?
Also known as: Bitcoin Halving, Halvening, Block Reward Halving
In short
Halving is the cutting in half, at predetermined intervals, of the block reward given to miners who produce new blocks in Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies; in Bitcoin it occurs every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years.
On Bitcoin, new coins enter circulation only through the block reward. When the network started in 2009, the reward was 50 BTC per block; with the halvings in 2012, 2016, and 2020 it fell to 25, 12.5, and 6.25 BTC respectively, and with the fourth halving in April 2024 to 3.125 BTC. This schedule is written into the protocol code and changing it would require broad consensus on the network. Halvings cause the total supply to approach the 21 million cap at a progressively slower rate; the last bitcoin is expected to be produced around 2140.
Because halving reduces the rate of new supply, it is central to Bitcoin's scarcity narrative and is closely watched in the market. Although price increases have followed past halvings, the causal relationship between them is debated, and past price movements do not mean they will repeat in the future.
For miners, a halving means that revenue from the block reward is cut in half at once. Miners using inefficient hardware can lose profitability; in the long run, network security is expected to depend increasingly on transaction fees. Some cryptocurrencies derived from Bitcoin, such as Litecoin, also have their own halving schedules.
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