Second halving

The second Bitcoin halving arrived with block 420,000 on July 9, 2016. The reward for each new block fell from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC, cutting new daily supply from about 3,600 BTC to about 1,800 BTC.

The price on halving day itself was fairly calm. The chart shows the daily close we fetched for that date. The bigger moves came later: over the next 18 months bitcoin rose more than tenfold into the December 2017 peak, although many factors were at work, including the ICO boom.

A halving does not change how fast blocks arrive or how transactions work. It only changes how many new coins miners get, which is why people watch it as a supply event.