Crypto glossary
Halving
The halving is the scheduled cut, roughly every four years, that halves the number of new bitcoins miners earn for each block they add.
Bitcoin's code halves the block subsidy every 210,000 blocks, which takes about four years. The reward started at 50 BTC in 2009 and fell to 25 BTC in 2012, 12.5 in 2016, 6.25 in 2020 and 3.125 in April 2024. The next halving, expected around 2028, will reduce it to 1.5625 BTC.
This schedule is what caps total supply at 21 million coins, with the last fractions expected to be mined around 2140. Each halving slows the pace of new issuance, which many investors view as supportive for the price, although past cycles are no guarantee of future ones.
For miners the halving is a direct revenue shock: income from new coins per block drops by half overnight, so operations with high power costs or older hardware can become unprofitable. Other coins, such as Litecoin, have similar mechanisms.
Example
Before April 2024 the network issued about 900 new bitcoins a day; after the halving, issuance fell to about 450 a day, since roughly 144 blocks are mined daily.
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Latest articles on Halving
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