Bitcoin's highly anticipated 'halving' event takes place

Bitcoin’s rare halving event has taken place, according to crypto analysis firm CoinGecko.

It slashes the number of new Bitcoin entering the market by cutting the rewards earned by Bitcoin miners by 50%.

Taking place roughly every four years, it’s designed to cap supply at 21 million by 2140.

It means just 450 Bitcoin will now be created each day.

Halvings also took place in 2012, 2016 and 2020 – and the mechanism was written into Bitcoin’s code when it was first created.

The cryptocurrency’s price remained stable at $63,747 (£51,531) after the halving, with analysts saying the anticipated event had already been priced in.

Investors will be hoping a big increase won’t be too far away though, after previous halvings eventually led to significant gains.

The price at the May 2020 halving was around $8,600, but a year later it surged to over $56,000.

Andrew O’Neill, a crypto expert at S&P Global, said he was “somewhat sceptical of the lessons that can be taken in terms of price prediction from previous halvings”.

“It’s only one factor in a multitude of factors that can drive price,” said Mr O’Neill.

Bitcoin hit a new high of $73,803 (£59,661) in March after rising 175% over the previous 12 months.

It also received a boost in legitimacy in January when funds (ETFs) holding Bitcoin were allowed to be traded on the US stock exchange.

The mainstream financial industry has traditionally viewed Bitcoin as extremely high risk and prone to unpredictable and dramatic price swings.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned in 2021 that cryptocurrencies have “no intrinsic value” and investors should be “prepared to lose all your money”.

He also told MPs in January that crypto was “pretty inefficient” and still “not taking off as a core financial service”.

More than 19.5 million Bitcoin have now been mined, leaving just 1.5 million able to be mined over the next 116 years.

The halving takes place every 210,000 “blocks” – which normally works out around every four years.

This article was originally published by Sky.com. Read the original article here.