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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) went through its fourth halving event late Friday following a quadrennial software update in blockchain, marking a highly anticipated catalyst for the world’s highest-profile cryptocurrency.
With the 840,000th block posted to the Bitcoin blockchain, the so-called mining rewards offered to miners for validating transactions were slashed in half, leading to a significant reduction in newly issued coins.
Analytics site Blockchain.com confirmed that the modification went into effect at 8:10 p.m., an event that could cut the Bitcoin miner rewards to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC per mined block.
The overall halving process was scheduled to end at 9:40 p.m. Ahead of the event, H.C. Wainwright analyst Mike Colonnese predicted that halving could be a positive for the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) due to supply-side constraints.
However, citing geopolitical tensions and inflationary concerns, he didn’t rule out short-term pressure on mining stocks (MARA), (RIOT), (HUT), (HIVE), (BTBT), and (BITF).
