The third bitcoin halving, one of the most long-awaited events for cryptocurrencies investors, occured on May 12. The halving was not accompanied by any particular price movement, and there had been a drop in the previous days, after the world’s most famous cryptocurrency had previously hit $10,000, going against analysts’ predictions that halving would have led to a strong appreciation of the asset. Investors are now wondering what will happen to BTC prices. Basically, it is mainly the direction that Bitcoin prices will take in the coming days that will interest traders.
The Bitcoin halving has been ahead of schedule and started at exactly 21:23 CET. At that time AntPool undermined the 630,000 block number of the network and then the halving started. When the operation was executed, the rewards awarded to the miners were automatically halved from the previous 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. This is not the first time the rewards have been cut. When Bitcoin was introduced in 2008, the reward amounted to BTC 50. Following the first halving (2012), it had decreased to BTC 25 and after the second halving (2016) to BTC 12.5 until May 12.
Now, the focus is already on the next halving (the fourth), which should take place among another 210,000 blocks then at 840,000. At the end of the fourth halving, the reward awarded to the miners will undergo another halving and will go down to BTC 3.125. Also in that case, as in the previous ones, it will not be possible to indicate the precise date when the operation will take place, being this automatic.
What happened after the halving surprised the analysts. Bitcoin did not experience the considerable volatility that analysts forecasted, and its hash rate dropped only slightly in the immediately following hours. The reduction in the reward could be a bullish event in the long term but its short-term impacts remain widely debated. In the hours before the halving Bitcoin experienced a sharp sell-off that brought the price down to $8,100, although this was quickly absorbed by bullish pressure, which brought it to half of the $8,000 area.
The argument in favor of halving is largely centered on the idea that the miners will begin to hold the cryptocurrency in their wallets until the price rises, thus rewarding their calculation activity in an optimal way.