KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Bitcoin’s fourth halving event is expected to take place later this month.
- According to reports from Coinbase and 21Shares, the SEC’s approval of spot bitcoin ETFs could alter the supply and demand dynamics of the upcoming halving event.
- There are fewer bitcoins available to trade compared to prior halving cycles.
- According to Grayscale, it’s important to contextualize the upcoming halving with the uncertainty around a rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Bitcoin (BTC) halving is expected later this month but a confluence of factors is likely to set the cryptocurrency’s fourth such event apart from prior occurrences.
Halving—after which the rate bitcoins are generated by the network roughly every ten minutes is cut in half—typically occurs after 210,000 bitcoins are mined or roughly every four years. Halving is expected this year around April 20, but some suggest it could happen even sooner.
Bitcoin Price Is Trading Differently Ahead Of The Halving
In the runup to prior halving iterations, bitcoin has scaled new highs in the months following the reduction in the crypto asset’s rate of issuance.
Recently it reached a new all-time high before the current cycle’s halving event for the first time. Analysts at Coinbase warn the market could be placing undue importance on price movements around halving without taking into account the context of broader market conditions.
“The performance of bitcoin around previous halving events was most likely context-dependent. That may explain why price trends during different cycles have varied so widely,” wrote in a March report.
For example, they attribute some of the 45% growth before the second halving in July 2016 to uncertainties surrounding Brexit and the 73% gain ahead of the third halving in May 2020 to the pandemic-era initial coin offering (ICO) boom.