The world’s most popular digital coin, Bitcoin successfully went through its third halving in its history on Tuesday, seeing its daily supply of new bitcoin reduced by half.
Bitcoin halving cuts the reward for using bitcoin mining software to ‘mine’ bitcoin from 12.5 new bitcoins to 6.25.
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Previous halving events have triggered the surge in Bitcoin prices. With COVID-19 disrupting financial markets in recent months Bitcoin price made no significant surge as cases in COVID-19 mortality rate increases
Bitcoin price, which had been volatile lately prior to its halving, has remained flat since the event(halving)occurred, Bitcoin at the time of writing was trading just over 2% and hovering around $8,906 per bitcoin according to coinmarketcap
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However, “The recent much-hyped halving, while largely psychological in impact, could create a catalyst drawing new players into the market and contributing to the rise in the value of bitcoin,” said Gavin Smith, chief executive of Hong Kong-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange and hedge fund Panxora, adding he believes bitcoin is at “the start of a multi-year bull phase” though there could be “a bumpy road ahead.”
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The first halving happened around November 2012 when the mining reward was slashed from 50 bitcoins to 25, and the second happened in mid-2016 when it was further reduced to 12.5