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.
📈 Bitcoin Halvings
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.
As of 2026, approximately 20 million of Bitcoin’s 21 million supply have already been mined. Because of the diminishing supply schedule, the last bitcoin is not expected to be mined until around the year 2140.