In short: the next bitcoin halving will happen at block 1,050,000, which on current block times points to April 2028. At that block the new-coin reward paid to miners drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC, halving the daily flow of new bitcoin. It changes nothing for people holding or sending bitcoin, but it cuts miner revenue sharply unless the price or fees rise, which is why miners are already changing their businesses.
What a halving is
Bitcoin creates new coins in only one way: each block a miner adds to the chain carries a "block subsidy" of freshly created BTC, alongside the fees paid by the transactions in that block. The code cuts that subsidy in half every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years. That cut is the halving.
A few points that often get missed:
- It is triggered by block height, not by a date. Nobody schedules it. It happens when block 1,050,000 is mined.
- Only the subsidy halves. Transaction fees are untouched and go to the miner as usual.
- No vote or upgrade is needed. The rule has been in the software since 2009. Every node enforces it automatically.
- Your coins are not affected. Balances, wallets and addresses carry on exactly as before.
When is the next halving?
As of 4 November 2026 the chain tip was at block 974,530, according to mempool.space. That leaves 75,470 blocks to go until block 1,050,000.
Bitcoin targets one block every ten minutes. At exactly that pace, the remaining blocks take about 524 days, which lands around 11 April 2028. Recent blocks have been a little slower: mempool.space's difficulty data showed an average of about 10 minutes 20 seconds per block in the current period, which would push the date towards late April 2028. Difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks to pull block times back towards ten minutes, so the estimate will keep moving by days, not months.
For a live estimate, use the halving countdown on our statistics page, which recalculates from the current block height.
What changes on halving day
| Before (since April 2024) | After (from block 1,050,000) | |
|---|---|---|
| Subsidy per block | 3.125 BTC | 1.5625 BTC |
| New BTC per day (about 144 blocks) | about 450 BTC | about 225 BTC |
| Annual new supply as a share of coins in circulation | about 0.8% | about 0.4% |
The daily and annual figures are simple arithmetic from the subsidy and the ten-minute target, so treat them as approximations. The subsidy figures themselves are fixed by the protocol.
A short history of past halvings
There have been four halvings so far. Block times and dates come from the block headers on mempool.space; prices for 2012 to 2020 are daily closing prices reported by CoinMarketCap, and the 2024 price is mempool.space's historical price for that day.
| Halving | Block | Date (UTC) | Subsidy change | BTC price on the day (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 210,000 | 28 Nov 2012 | 50 → 25 BTC | about $12 |
| 2nd | 420,000 | 9 Jul 2016 | 25 → 12.5 BTC | about $641 |
| 3rd | 630,000 | 11 May 2020 | 12.5 → 6.25 BTC | about $8,605 |
| 4th | 840,000 | 20 Apr 2024 | 6.25 → 3.125 BTC | about $63,800 |
| 5th (next) | 1,050,000 | est. April 2028 | 3.125 → 1.5625 BTC | not yet known |
Notice that the gaps between halvings are close to four years but not exact. They drift because hashrate keeps rising and difficulty only catches up every two weeks.
What past halvings do and don't tell us about price
Each of the first three halvings was followed, within roughly a year to eighteen months, by a large rise in the bitcoin price. That pattern is the source of the "four-year cycle" idea. It is worth being cautious about it for three reasons.
- The sample is tiny. Three or four events are not enough to separate cause from coincidence.
- The supply effect keeps shrinking. In 2012 the halving removed 3,600 new BTC per day from the market. In 2028 it removes about 225 BTC per day, against a circulating supply of more than 20 million.
- Other forces are bigger now. Spot ETFs, interest rates, corporate treasuries and regulation all move the price, and a halving that everyone knows about years in advance is hard to call a surprise.
The cycle after the 2024 halving already looked different. Bitcoin peaked in October 2025, and by the end of June 2026 it had closed at $59,005, about 53% below that peak, according to Luxor's Hashrate Index. Mempool.space showed a price of about $78,280 on 4 November 2026. We do not forecast where it goes next, and nobody can reliably do so from the halving schedule alone.
Who it affects
Miners: a straight cut to revenue
Miners feel the halving first and hardest. Their income is subsidy plus fees, and fees are currently tiny. In September 2026 transaction fees made up just 0.63% of total block rewards, the fifteenth month in a row below 1%, according to Luxor. Over the 1,008 blocks to 4 November 2026, fees were about 19 BTC out of roughly 3,169 BTC paid to miners, per mempool.space's reward statistics. In plain terms, more than 99% of miner income today comes from the subsidy that is about to halve.
The industry tracks this through hashprice: the expected revenue from one petahash per second of computing power per day. Hashprice set a daily all-time low of $27.74 on 6 June 2026 and a record-low monthly average of $30.37 for June, according to Luxor. It recovered to a September average of $39.33. All else being equal, a halving cuts hashprice roughly in half overnight.
Meanwhile, competition keeps growing. Network hashrate stood at about 1,019 EH/s (just over one zettahash per second) in early November 2026, per mempool.space.
MARA's chief executive Fred Thiel told CoinDesk in November 2025 that after 2028 miners will need to be a power generator, be owned by one, or partner with one, and that smaller miners face strong pressure to shut down.
Public miners turning into data-centre companies
The clearest response so far is a pivot to AI and high-performance computing (HPC). Miners already own what AI firms want: power contracts, grid connections, land and cooling.
- In November 2025 IREN signed a five-year, $9.7 billion AI cloud contract with Microsoft to supply Nvidia GB300 capacity from its Childress, Texas campus.
- Several miners sold bitcoin to reduce debt in early 2026. MARA sold more than 15,000 BTC in March 2026 and Riot more than 3,700 BTC in the first quarter, Cointelegraph reported.
- S&P Global Market Intelligence summarised the trend in February 2026: with prices falling and energy costs high, several public miners are shifting toward powering data centres to diversify revenue.
You can browse mining pools, hardware makers and hosting firms in the mining category of the register.
Holders and everyday users
For people who hold or spend bitcoin, almost nothing changes on the day. Transactions confirm as normal. If some miners switch off, blocks may come a little slower until the next difficulty adjustment, and fees can rise briefly if demand for block space is high. Otherwise the halving is a background event.
The network's long-term security budget
The bigger question is what pays for security once the subsidy is small. Over time fees are meant to take over. With fees below 1% of miner income today, that handover has a long way to go, and it is one of the most debated open questions in Bitcoin. It does not need solving by 2028, but each halving makes it more visible.
Supply: how much is left?
Blockchain.com's API reported a total of about 20,105,365 BTC mined at block 974,530, which is roughly 95.7% of the 21 million cap. By the 2028 halving the total will be about 20.34 million, close to 96.9%.
The last fraction of a coin is expected around the year 2140. The Bitcoin Wiki gives estimates for May to October 2140, notes that an exact date is hard to predict, and puts the true maximum slightly below 21 million, at 20,999,999.9769 BTC, because of rounding in how the code stores amounts. Some coins already mined are lost for good, so the usable supply is lower still.
For more on the asset itself, see the Bitcoin chain page.
FAQ
What is the exact date of the 2028 halving?
There is no fixed date. It happens when block 1,050,000 is mined. On current block times that is most likely in April 2028, and the estimate moves by a few days as hashrate changes. Check /statistics for a live countdown.
Do I need to do anything with my bitcoin before the halving?
No. Your balance, wallet and keys are unaffected. Be wary of anyone who says you must move coins, "upgrade" a wallet or claim something because of the halving: that is a common scam pattern.
Will the price go up after the halving?
Nobody knows. Prices rose after earlier halvings, but the sample is small and ETFs, interest rates and wider markets now matter far more than a cut of 225 BTC per day. Treat any confident forecast tied to the halving with suspicion.
Is the four-year cycle over?
It is being argued about openly. The post-2024 market peaked in October 2025 and then fell more than 50% by mid-2026, which some read as a normal cycle and others as evidence the pattern is breaking down. The honest answer is that there is not enough data to settle it.
Will home mining still be worth it after 2028?
For most people paying retail electricity prices, it already struggles today, with hashprice near record lows in 2026. After the halving, revenue per machine roughly halves again. Home mining tends to make sense only with very cheap or surplus power, or as a heat source.
What happens when all bitcoin has been mined?
Around 2140 the subsidy reaches zero and miners are paid only through transaction fees. Whether fees will be high enough to keep the network as secure as it is today is an open question, not a settled one.
Sources
- mempool.space: current block height (974,530 on 4 Nov 2026)
- mempool.space: difficulty adjustment (average block time, 4 Nov 2026)
- mempool.space: hashrate (about 1,019 EH/s, Nov 2026)
- mempool.space: reward statistics, last 1,008 blocks (fees vs subsidy, Nov 2026)
- mempool.space: prices and historical price, 20 Apr 2024
- Blockchain.com: total bitcoin mined (4 Nov 2026)
- Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply
- CoinMarketCap Academy: Bitcoin halving history
- Luxor Hashrate Index: June 2026 lookback and September 2026 lookback
- CoinDesk: MARA CEO on the next halving (11 Nov 2025)
- The Block: IREN and Microsoft $9.7bn deal (3 Nov 2025)
- Cointelegraph: the 2028 halving hits the halfway point (Apr 2026)
- S&P Global Market Intelligence: miners pivot to AI and HPC (Feb 2026)
More guides in the BitOrgs Journal.
This article is for general information only and is not financial advice.
Last reviewed: 4 November 2026.
Written by the BitOrgs editorial team from the sources linked above. Something out of date? Send a correction. Nothing here is investment advice.
