We’re more than one year on from the April 2024 Bitcoin halving. Let us just say it was underwhelming compared to the previous years. We can’t say that it was as dramatic as some years have been, and a lot of crypto critics and experts expected much more from it. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price live is $102,187.02. At the time of the halving, Bitcoin was priced at $64,046.61.
Looking at those numbers, you could argue Bitcoin has almost doubled in value. What we’ll discuss below will absolutely prove that it wasn’t necessarily the halving that caused the price to have jumped just under $40k.
Read on to find out about the halving event and where we are one year later.
What’s a Bitcoin Halving Event?
First, you should have a clear understanding of what a Bitcoin halving event is. It’s easy to think that a Bitcoin halving event has something to do with the amount of Bitcoins in circulation. Technically speaking, it has to do with that, but it doesn’t have to do with the current number of bitcoins in circulation.
There have been four Bitcoin halving events so far, and each time the reward miners receive for adding blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain, in other words, when they authorize a transaction and it records on the blockchain as a ‘block,’ they’re rewarded in Bitcoins.
In the good old days, when you could still use a powerful CPU to mine Bitcoin, each miner would receive 50 Bitcoins for every block they added to the Bitcoin blockchain. After the 2024 halving event, each miner receives 3.125 Bitcoins.
A halving event happens every four years, and each time, the rewards a miner receives are halved. So, technically, the number of bitcoins in circulation reduces because miners receiving bitcoins reduces, and that’s how bitcoins are released into circulation.
The 2024 Bitcoin Halving Event
Typically, a Bitcoin halving event has always generated some hype. This one was underwhelming. It happened on April 20th, 2024, reducing the mining reward from 6.25 to 3.125 Bitcoins per blockchain added to the network.
There was so much hype around the event because we’re creeping towards figures that make the concept and effort of mining Bitcoin seem like a task without the due reward. Well, that and the fact that each event creates more scarcity can, in turn, raise its value because of the evolving supply and demand dynamics.
And even six months ago, crypto fanatics were telling us to wait for the next massive bull run that was sure to come after the halving event.
We’re one year on, and no one can put their money on the fact that the halving event is the exact reason why Bitcoin is so much higher than it was at the time of the event.
Now, going back to what we said in the previous section, the price increase of around the 50% mark sounds good, but it isn’t when you look at the previous halving events and how dramatic they were—more on that in the next section.
The History of Bitcoin Halving Events
The history of Bitcoin halving events proves to us why this one was nothing short of underwhelming.
The first Bitcoin halving event took place in 2012. At that time, Bitcoin was worth $12.35 and soared to $964, an increase of 8,000%. The second halving took place in 2016, following the trend of the halving events happening every four years. By then, Bitcoin had dropped to $663 but again soared up to $2,500, a gain of 277%. Then we move to the 2020 halving, where the value at the time of the halving was $8,500 and jumped to $69,000, a price it has never really dropped below since. That was a decent gain of 762%.
Oh, to have actually owned Bitcoin before the 2012 halving event.
Still, now you can see that the previous halving event is boring compared to others. And we’re well past any date that we could associate a spike in Bitcoin value with the halving event. A roughly 50% price increase doesn’t show investors are losing interest in Bitcoin, but it does show that the scarcity isn’t as scary as it was.
Where We Are Today
Bitcoin is Bitcoining. It’s going through its usual ups and downs associated with media hype, speculation, macroeconomics, and everything in between.
There are some decent reasons for the underwhelming performance. Macroeconomic tensions, ongoing trade war fears, and the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs have all shifted the market dynamics. Some investors were dreaming of a replication of the COVID-19-era stimulus-fueled boom. Reality checked them hard.
And now we know that the halving doesn’t cut the existing supply of Bitcoin; it just slows the creation of new coins. With almost 20 million Bitcoins already in circulation and the final supply capped at 21 million, we’re running out of room for the halving to have the same shock factor.
Looking ahead to the next halving in 2028, experts are already predicting that the real game-changer won’t be supply cuts. It’ll be in demand. Institutions, governments, and big corporations could be the ones who push Bitcoin into its next major rally. Supply is old news. Demand is where the future is.
One year after the 2024 Bitcoin halving, it feels safe to say that the magic of the early halving events is fading fast. Bitcoin is up, sure, but not in the earth-shattering way we used to expect. The days of quadruple-digit gains right after a halving event could be behind us.
By 2028, Bitcoin will be a totally different beast.
