What is Halving?
The scheduled 50% reduction of the block subsidy, occurring every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years.
Four halvings have occurred: 2012 (50 to 25 BTC), 2016 (25 to 12.5), 2020 (12.5 to 6.25) and 2024 (6.25 to 3.125). The next reduces the subsidy to 1.5625 BTC.
The direct effect is mechanical and certain: new issuance halves overnight and miner subsidy revenue halves with it, forcing the least efficient capacity out unless price or fees compensate.
The price effect of halvings is asserted with far more confidence than four observations can support. The supply effect is a fact; the price effect is an argument.
Related terms
Block subsidy
The newly issued bitcoin paid to the miner of each block. It began at 50 BTC and halves every 210,000 blocks.
MarketsStock-to-flow
A model relating an asset's existing supply to its annual new production, applied to Bitcoin to argue for…
How it worksBlock height
The number of blocks in the chain before the current one, counting the genesis block as zero. It is the…
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.