Bitcoin Halving Explained: Schedule, History and Miner Impact

The halving is Bitcoin’s monetary policy written in code: the block reward paid to miners is cut in half every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years. It will continue until the reward rounds down to zero, around the year 2140, fixing total supply just under 21 million BTC.

The schedule so far

• 2009: 50 BTC per block (genesis)
• Nov 2012: 25 BTC — first halving
• Jul 2016: 12.5 BTC
• May 2020: 6.25 BTC
• Apr 2024: 3.125 BTC
• Expected 2028: 1.5625 BTC

Does the halving pump the price?

Past cycles saw large bull markets in the 12–18 months following each halving. But three data points make a pattern, not a law: each cycle also coincided with major macro shifts (zero rates, stimulus, ETF approval). The honest claim is narrower — the halving structurally reduces new sell pressure from miners, everything else is narrative.

Who feels it first: miners

Overnight, revenue per block drops 50% while electricity and hardware costs stay flat. Inefficient miners switch off; the difficulty adjusts downward roughly two weeks later, restoring equilibrium for survivors. For miners, a halving is a stress test of their all-in cost per bitcoin.

If you run or plan to run hashrate, model post-halving profitability before committing capital — our mining calculator lets you change the block reward, price, difficulty and power cost to see where your breakeven sits.