Analyzing Bitcoin Halving: Mining rewards, market trends, and investment strategies
Bitcoin introduced the concept of cryptocurrency to the world in 2009 and its subsequent role as a virtual asset was completely unintentional. When investors saw tremendous scope in Bitcoin as an asset class, its trading valuation heavily depended on the fact that its total quantity was fixed at 21 million. The price of Bitcoin has another important factor influencing it — the mining rewards. In layman's terms, the miners who are needed to validate Bitcoin transactions are “rewarded” for their efforts with Bitcoins itself. This is the only way new bitcoins or BTC are made available in the system.
Since the first BTC(genesis) was mined in 2009, it has had three halving events. What this means is that the mining rewards are halved, leading to a halving of the new supply of BTC. In 2009 from 50 BTC as reward, it halved to 25 BTC when the first halving happened in 2012. It is currently at 6.25 BTC after the 2016 and 2020 halving events. The upcoming 2024 event expected shortly will reduce this to 3.125 BTC. BTC will continue halving till 2140
Today, there are over 19 million BTC in circulation with less than 2 million left to be mined. BTC halving will ensure that these 2 million Bitcoins won't be mined for another hundred years or so. The influence on the mining community will be deep. Mining will obviously be less profitable now, leaving only the larger players in the fray. Strategies will need to be redefined here in order to find better ways of staying profitable apart from the inevitable upgrade of systems.
