In less than six months’ time, Bitcoin will see an extremely important event. Known as a “halving” or “halvening,” the number of coins issued per block to miners will get cut in half from 12.5 to 6.25, effectively meaning that BTC’s inflation rate will be cut in half in layman’s terms.
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The halving mechanism, should it be kept in the code in the decades to come, will ensure that there will only be 21 million Bitcoin in existence. Ever. This ties into Satoshi Nakamoto’s seeming obsession with creating a scarce, hard form of money that is unlike fiat money, which can be printed without limits.
While some are skeptical of the event’s effects on the BTC market, a leading investor in the cryptocurrency industry asserted that there is no way that the halving is priced in.
Bitcoin Halving to be Decidiely Positive
The investor, Alistair Milne of Altana Digital Currency Fund. Milne recently noted that after the halving comes into effect in 2020, 50% of all newly mined Bitcoin will be absorbed by the purchases of clients of two companies: Grayscale through its Bitcoin Trust and Square through its BTC buying service. This ignores the inflows from Coinbase customers, people buying cryptocurrency through RobinHood and eToro, and so on and so forth.
In other words, should demand persist or grow, the halving will only boost the supply-demand economics model for BTC, pushing prices higher with ample time.
After halving, ~50% of all newly mined Bitcoin will be absorbed by just two companies: GBTC and Square
This ignores the 30million Coinbase customers, people investing via RobinHood, eToro, etc. etc
… but tell me again how halving is priced in.
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) December 21, 2019
As aforementioned, though, not everyone agrees with Milne’s optimistic sentiment.
Jason Williams, co-founder at digital asset fund Morgan Creek Digital, for instance, said at the turn of the month that one of his unpopular opinions is that “Bitcoin halving in May 2020 won’t do anything to the price. It will be a non-event.” This assertion comes in the wake of a strong downturn in the cryptocurrency markets, which has thrown cold water on a lot of the bullish sentiment and narratives being pushed earlier this year.
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Regardless, Crypto’s Trajectory Positive
Regardless of the exact details around whether or not the halving is priced in, analysts still assert that the industry’s directionality is decidedly positive.
Andy Bromberg argued in a recent Bloomberg segment that “we are seeing a level of building that has happened in 2019 [which makes it feel like] we’re in the moment of everyone is putting on their jumpsuits, ready to take off,” referencing the fundamental developments that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchains (and the firms backing them) have seen this year. Bromberg added that this level of building hasn’t been seen since 2017, boding well for prices in the future.
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