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A bitcoin halving is imminent. Here’s what that means.
Bitcoin is expected to go through a “halving” within the next day or two, a preprogrammed event that could impact production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
A halving, which occurs about every four years, was designed by bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, to effectively reduce by half the reward that miners of the digital token receive approximately every four years, or whenever a certain number of blocks are added to the blockchain. The idea is that by cutting in half the amount of bitcoin miners currently receive for their efforts, fewer bitcoins will enter the market, creating more scarcity of the cryptocurrency.
That’s sparked some speculation that the halving could cause a surge in demand and push up the price of bitcoin, which has already risen almost 50% since year start. Much of the credit for bitcoin’s recent rally is given to the early success of a new way to invest in the asset — spot bitcoin ETFs, which were only approved by U.S. regulators in January.
Here’s what to know about bitcoin’s “halving.”
What exactly is bitcoin “halving”?
Bitcoin miners get a fixed reward when they successfully validate a new block on the bitcoin blockchain. That reward is currently 6.25 bitcoin, worth about $402,000, based on today’s trading price for the token.
After the halving, miners will receive 3.125 bitcoin for achieving the same goal. As a result, the rate at which new bitcoins enter the market should also fall, slowing the supply of coins. According to limits set by Satoshi Nakamoto, only a maximum of 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, of which more than 19.5 million have already been mined, leaving fewer than 1.5 million left to be created.
When was the last bitcoin halving?
The last such event happened in May 2020, when bitcoin’s price stood at around $8,602, according to CoinMarketCap.
By May 2021, the value of bitcoin had surged almost seven-fold to almost $57,000.
When will the next halving occur?
Halving is scheduled to occur regularly after the creation of every 210,000 “blocks” — where transactions are recorded — during the mining process, that are added to the blockchain.
While there aren’t any set calendar dates for this to occur, it generally works out to roughly once every four years. The latest estimates expect the next halving to occur sometime late Friday or early Saturday.
What do expert say could happen with bitcoin’s price after the next halving?
Some believe that it will be a non-event for bitcoin’s price because the cryptocurrency has already experienced a big run-up this year.
“Investors, traders and speculators priced-in the halving months ago,” said Nigel Green, the CEO of financial services firm deVere Group, in an email. “As a result, a significant portion of the positive economic impact was experienced previously, driving up prices to fresh all-time highs last month.”
Still, others say that bitcoin could get a bump, at least longer-term. Growing demand due to the new ETFs, combined with the supply shock of the next halving, could help push bitcoin’s price even higher, said Bitwise senior crypto research analyst Ryan Rasmussen.
“We would expect the price of bitcoin to have a strong performance over the next 12 months,” he said. Rasmussen notes that he’s seen some predict gains reaching as high as $400,000, but the more “consensus estimate” is closer to the $100,000-$175,000 range.
What is the halving’s impact on bitcoin miners?
Miners will likely be pressed to become more energy efficient, or may need to raise new capital, experts said.
In its recent research report, Bitwise found that total miner revenue slumped one month after each of the three previous halvings. But those figures had rebounded significantly after a full year, thanks to spikes in the price of bitcoin as well as larger miners expanding their operations.
Time will tell how mining companies fare following this next looming halving. But Rasmussen is betting that big players will continue to expand and utilize the industry’s technology advances to make operations more efficient.
—With reporting by the Associated Press.
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Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
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To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
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Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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