What Is Bitcoin Halving? How It Works, History & Next Date

What is the Bitcoin halving?

The Bitcoin halving (also written "halvening") is a scheduled cut in the reward that new blocks pay out. Every time the network adds a block to the chain, the miner who found it receives newly created bitcoin plus the transaction fees from that block. Every 210,000 blocks, the newly created part is divided by two.

The halving is not a vote, a software update or a company decision. It is a rule written into Bitcoin's consensus code from the start, and every node checks it. The first block of the chain, the Genesis Block of January 3, 2009, paid 50 BTC, and that was the starting subsidy.

In plain terms: Bitcoin Mining is how new coins enter circulation, and the halving is the rule that makes that flow shrink in steps. The most recent halving, in April 2024, cut the subsidy from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.

Why the halving exists (21 million cap and supply schedule)

Bitcoin was designed with a fixed supply schedule instead of a central bank deciding how much money to issue. The halving is the tool that produces this schedule. Early blocks created many coins, and later blocks create fewer and fewer.

Because each subsidy is half the previous one, the total number of coins converges toward a limit. The Bitcoin wiki gives the exact figure as 20,999,999.9769 BTC, which is just under the well-known 21 million. The small gap exists because amounts are stored as whole integers of the smallest unit, so halving eventually rounds down. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 units; see Satoshi (Sat) & Bitcoin Units for the details.

Most coins are already in existence. Adding up the rewards above, about 19.69 million BTC had been created by the 2024 halving, and about 20.34 million will exist by the next one. The very last fraction is expected to be issued around the year 2140, according to the Bitcoin wiki's estimate.

How the halving works (210,000 blocks, block reward, block time)

Bitcoin Core calculates the subsidy from the block height. It starts at 50 BTC and shifts the value right by one bit for every completed 210,000-block period, which is the same as dividing by two. Block 210,000 is the first block paid at 25 BTC, block 420,000 is the first at 12.5 BTC, and so on.

The network aims for one new block about every ten minutes, a target called Block Time. At that pace, 210,000 blocks take about 1,458 days, a little under four years. Real blocks arrive faster or slower depending on how much computing power is online, so the calendar date of a halving is never fixed in advance; only the block height is.

The Block Reward a miner collects has two parts. The first is the subsidy, the newly created coins that the halving cuts. The second is the sum of transaction fees in the block, which the halving does not touch. Together they pay for the security work done under Proof of Work (PoW).

1. Miners compete to add the next block by solving the proof-of-work puzzle.
2. The winner's block pays the current subsidy plus the block's transaction fees.
3. After 210,000 blocks, the subsidy is divided by two and the cycle repeats.
4. The subsidy keeps halving until it rounds down to zero, expected around 2140.

Halving history

Bitcoin has had four halvings so far. The dates and heights below match halving trackers, and the 2024 figures also match press coverage of that event.

The gaps between them are close to four years, but not identical, because the number of blocks is fixed while the time is not. The next subsidy after 3.125 BTC is 1.5625 BTC, then 0.78125 BTC, and so on.

When is the next halving?

The fifth halving happens at block 1,050,000, when the subsidy drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. Halving trackers in 2026 estimate it for around April 2028, with one tracker showing April 17, 2028. These are estimates, not promises.

The estimate comes from simple arithmetic. A tracker takes the current block height, subtracts it from 1,050,000 and multiplies the remaining blocks by the ten-minute target. One tracker showed a chain height of about 972,000 in autumn 2026, which left roughly 78,000 blocks.

Why dates are only estimates

• Blocks do not arrive exactly every ten minutes, so small differences add up over thousands of blocks.
• If more computing power joins the network, blocks come a bit faster until difficulty adjusts, and the date moves earlier.
• If computing power leaves, blocks come slower and the date moves later.
• Trackers use different averaging methods, so two sites can show dates a few days apart.

The only reliable fact is the block height. Anyone can follow the live block count on a block explorer and see how close the network is to block 1,050,000.

Halving and miners (revenue, fees, hash rate, difficulty)

A Miner (Crypto Miner) is paid in bitcoin, so a halving cuts the coin-denominated subsidy income per block by half on the day it happens. What this means in local currency depends on the bitcoin price at the time and on fees, neither of which the halving controls.

The effect differs between miners. A miner with cheap electricity and efficient machines may stay profitable, while one with higher costs may switch machines off or sell equipment. Miners also earn fees, and fees vary a lot from day to day.

Hash rate and difficulty

If less efficient miners leave, total Hash Rate (TH/s, MH/s) can drop for a while. Bitcoin then resets Mining Difficulty about every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, so that block production returns toward the ten-minute target. This adjustment is why the halving does not stop the network. It simply makes mining more expensive relative to the reward until the system rebalances.

The long-term role of fees

Because the subsidy shrinks toward zero, fees must eventually cover most miner revenue. Whether fees will be enough to fund security is an open question that researchers and developers debate. This guide does not take a side.

Halving and price: what history does and does not show

People often link halvings to price swings. Bitcoin's price has moved a great deal in the years around each halving, but four events are a very small sample. Many other things changed at the same time, such as interest rates, regulation, investor demand and the wider economy.

The idea behind the link is supply and demand: if fewer new coins are created, and demand stays the same, price could be affected. But the halving date is known years ahead, and markets may already have reflected it. Past periods that people describe as a Bull Market (Bull Run) or a Bear Market cannot be traced to the halving alone.

Halving in other cryptocurrencies

Several coins that share Bitcoin's design also use halvings, but many do not. Ethereum, for example, does not use a Bitcoin-style halving, and many tokens never use mining at all. The table shows two commonly cited examples.

Litecoin halves every 840,000 blocks, because its blocks come more often than Bitcoin's. Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in August 2017 at block 478,558, so it inherited Bitcoin's block numbering and its halving heights, but the dates differ.

Not every proof-of-work coin follows this pattern. Dogecoin, for example, lowered its reward in early blocks and then moved to a fixed 10,000 DOGE per block with no overall cap, according to Capital.com.

Common misconceptions

• The halving cuts the price in half or doubles it. It changes only how many new coins a block creates. It does not set any price.
• The halving happens on a fixed calendar date. It happens at a fixed block height, so the date shifts slightly.
• Miner income falls by exactly half. Only the subsidy is halved. Fees stay as they are and the price may change.
• All bitcoin run out at the next halving. About 97 percent of the total supply will already exist by then, but the last coins are expected around 2140.
• Mining stops after the last halving. Miners can continue to earn transaction fees after the subsidy reaches zero.
• Every cryptocurrency has a halving. Many coins have no halving, different issuance rules, or no mining.

Frequently asked questions

Related terms

• Bitcoin Mining
• Block Reward
• Block Time
• Genesis Block
• Miner (Crypto Miner)
• Hash Rate (TH/s, MH/s)
• Mining Difficulty
• Proof of Work (PoW)
• Satoshi (Sat) & Bitcoin Units
• Bear Market
• Bull Market (Bull Run)
• Fork (Hard Fork & Soft Fork)

Sources

1. Bitcoin Halving Countdown BitRef
2. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin halving countdown ASIC Miner Value
3. Bitcoin undergoes fourth halving ForkLog
4. Litecoin halving reduces block reward to 6.25 LTC ForkLog
5. Litecoin halving completes Cointelegraph
6. Controlled supply Bitcoin Wiki
7. Bitcoin Core validation tests (TestBlockSubsidyHalvings, subsidy_limit_test) Bitcoin Core Doxygen
8. Dissecting the code responsible for the Bitcoin halving Mattias Geniar
9. Genesis block Blockstream Glossary
10. Bitcoin Cash halving summary Crystal Trade
11. Bitcoin Cash Spikes 10% After Halving CoinDesk
12. How many Dogecoins are there? Capital.com
13. Block chain developer guide (block reward = subsidy plus fees) Bitcoin.org