Halving

A halving is a scheduled event in the Bitcoin network that cuts in half the number of new bitcoins generated with each block. Built into Bitcoin’s code, this mechanism ensures that the supply of new bitcoins decreases over time. Originally, miners received 50 bitcoins for each block they added to the blockchain. After every 210,000 blocks—approximately every four years—this reward is reduced by 50%. These halving events continue until the block reward eventually drops to zero, which will happen after 34 halvings, at which point over 7 million blocks will have been mined. This gradual reduction in issuance limits the total supply of bitcoin to 21 million, making it a deflationary digital currency.