The Bitcoin halving (sometimes referred to as “the halvening”) is a scheduled event that reduces the rate at which new bitcoin is created.
Roughly every four years - or every 210,000 blocks to be precise - the reward paid to miners for adding a new block to the blockchain is cut in half. This will continue until the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoin is reached. The halving:
- is hard-coded into Bitcoin’s rules,
- gradually slows the creation of new bitcoin,
- is often discussed in relation to bitcoin’s supply and long-term scarcity.
Halvings follow a predictable schedule. Since Bitcoin’s genesis block was mined in 2009, the original block subsidy of 50 bitcoins has been halved four times:
- November 28, 2012 - to 25 bitcoins
- July 9, 2016 - to 12.5 bitcoins
- May 11, 2020 - to 6.25 bitcoins
- April 20, 2024 - to 3.125 bitcoins
The next halving is expected to occur in April 2028, when the block reward will fall to 1.625 bitcoins.