Bitcoin has halved in 2024, which reduced the rewards offered to miners to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 Bitcoin. Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million digital currencies, and the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, designed the blockchain with this feature to preserve the scarcity of the platform. Since 2009, when Bitcoin was launched, this digital coin has managed to become the largest digital coin by market cap, which is why people worldwide have become interested in what the halving event will bring to the BTC’s price. Halving events occur after 210,000 blocks are mined, which in normal conditions take around four years, so the last one is expected to appear in 2140.
As cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets, a lot of scenarios can happen until the next halving, which will occur in 2028. The BTC prediction for 2028 seems to be positive if we analyze the price compared to what happened in the past. For example, since the halving in 2020, its value as seen on the Bitcoin price chart has risen tremendously, but will this happen in the future as well. To figure it out, let’s discover more about the complexities of the Bitcoin halving.
The History Analysis of the Prices of Bitcoin During the Last Halvings
The best way to predict what could happen with the Bitcoin price is to look at the past, as this is the best way to detect how Bitcoin can behave in the future. The first halving was in November 2012, when Bitcoin was still at a nascent stage, and only the tech and crypto enthusiasts knew about its existence. The price of Bitcoin in that period was $5, but during the halving, it increased to $10. Then, a year later, the price surged and hit a record of $163, and after that, it went on an upward trajectory, surpassing the $1,000 mark by the end of that year.
The second halving occurred in July 2016, which coincided with the Initial Coin Offering bubble. The price started to increase in October 2013, which is why the BTC price during the halving was about $600. It held a steady price until April 2017, when it peaked at $19,000 in December.
The third halving took place in May 2020, when Bitcoin became more adopted by investors and crypto enthusiasts, so many people anticipated the event eagerly. Still, unfortunately, the halving coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, when economies from all around the world started to shut down. However, when people were locked in their homes, many began to discover the intriguing world of cryptocurrencies, so after the price dipped in March, it recovered to $10,000 in May. However, the price increased even more after the halving when the price hit $61,000 in March 2021.
Favorable Factors for the Bitcoin Halving 2024
The conditions were favorable in the halving that occurred in April, as Bitcoin was traded at around $60,000, which is a high price compared with the same time of last year, showing that there is support for a new bull market.
Behind these optimistic scenarios, there were numerous catalysts, which could be traced back to the summer of 2023, when various providers (and it is worth mentioning that some of them are the world’s largest institutions) have supported and submitted applications to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF in the USA. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, greatly impacting the crypto ecosystem, as the inflow hit about $2 billion in just the first three days after the approval.
ADVERTISEMENT
Another factor that changed the public’s perception of Bitcoin and made them consider this digital coin more is the opinions of people who started to compare it with digital gold. Currently, the world deals with numerous issues, as there is global geopolitical uncertainty with the wars in the Middle East and Europe, so people have begun to look for solutions and shift their assets into other commodities, including Bitcoin. Additionally, Bitcoin began to be perceived as a store of value because of the inflation that soared in Western economies, which was caused by disruption in the supply chains and by some monetary policies that central banks implemented.
Bitcoin Has Also Experienced Technological Advancements
One reason that could push Bitcoin’s price upwards is the tech developments that are increasingly considered in the Bitcoin ecosystem. When Bitcoin was developed, Satoshi wanted to prioritize decentralization and security in the blockchain. However, with the new tech developments and the growing demand, network congestion increased, which led to wait times. This is why developers have started to search for ways to improve the scalability that led to this congestion and enhance the BTC use cases as a medium of exchange.
Blockchains function with different layers, where the Layer 1s contain the core protocols, such as the native Bitcoin platform, while the Layer 2s are built on top of them to maximize the strengths of the first layer and overcome its weaknesses. The Bitcoin Layer 2s want to enhance the blockchain’s capacity to process transactions, but they will also improve the functionality of the network, allowing developers to build new applications and tools on the core protocol, which can pave the way to decentralized finance apps and smart contracts.
The Last Words
As Bitcoin has halved in 2024, we can turn our attention to the new halving event, which will take place in 2028. Even if we can’t pinpoint the price of Bitcoin, we will get some insights by following the patterns of Bitcoins from the past and how it behaved during the halving events. What do you think will happen with the Bitcoin price in 2028? Will it experience a boom or a bust?
