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Industry Executives Weigh In on Bitcoin Halving Effect

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:49 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:49 PM

The day of the halving is here and the event is certain to influence the price of bitcoin at a time when the value of the cryptocurrency has spiked nearly 50% since the turn of the year.

It is the day of the second halving event in bitcoin’s history, one which will see miners’ block rewards halve from 25 to 12.5 bitcoins.

Industry executives weighed in to have their say on the halving event.

Sheffield Clark, CEO of Bitcoin ATM network Coinsource  is bullish on the immediate price effects induced by the halving.

I believe it will definitely lead to some spurts of volatility with the possibility of that trending towards the upside. The actual amount of bitcoin entering the market daily will only decrease by 1,800 BTC or $1.2 million at current prices, but the larger impact will probably take place on [the] perception of the market.

An event of such historical significance will undoubtedly attract media attention to some degree, and therefore stands to trigger a larger fear of missing out which tends to add upwards pressure to price.

Net, I’m bullish.

He also believes that bitcoin miners will be prepared for the halving, in that the event itself will not have much of an impact on miners, irrespective of the price moves on either direction.

He stated:

At Jul 5, 2016, price of $670, net dollar value of bitcoin mined per day post-halving is $1.206 million. On July 5, 2015, price of $277, net dollar value of bitcoin mined per day pre-halving was $0.997 million.

Ultimately, miners have already been through and are therefore prepared for these sorts of revenue fluctuations.

Luis Molina, founder and CEO of blockchain P2P platform Fermat also sees spikes in the value of bitcoin.

Over the past month, we have already seen the market react, to some extent, to the bitcoin halving. The price lift that just occurred indicates a market sentiment that the price will rise as a result of halving.

Molina also sees room for more bitcoin and blockchain startups, in the event of rising prices.

Should the price rise and stabilize to some extent at that level, more new companies will join the ecosystem.  Bitcoin startups which are funded in bitcoins also might extend their runway if they are still holding their bitcoins.

Gene Kavner, founder and CEO of bitcoin wallet iPayYou  opines that the having event has already had its say bitcoin price’s recent rally. He is also pointing to the blockchain mining hash rate as a good indicator to really gauge the event’s influence on price, after the halving.

The price of this halving has, most likely, already been baked into the current price of bitcoin.  The big question is, whether the halving will have a negative effect on the bitcoin miners who perform confirmations of transactions.

In my opinion, the metric to watch for is the blockchain mining hash rate after the halving.

If it decreases suddenly, it is quite possible that the bitcoin price will fall.  If the hash rate continues its upward trend it would indicate no negative effect on the miners and bitcoin price is very likely to follow upwards.

He is also of the belief that bitcoin’s future will ultimately be determined in the way its adopted.

[In the] long term, halving by itself will not have any effect.  Bitcoin will grow based on its usability in commerce and demand on its unique nature as both, the store of value and the global settlement engine.

Rik Willard, founder and managing director of Agentic Group , a global consortium of bitcoin and blockchain companies and nonprofits sees immediate movement in the price of bitcoin following the halving event.

He stated:

I think that, like a stock split, the immediate effect will be a halving of value per Bitcoin. However, unlike a stock split, I think we will see an accelerated vote of confidence in the network reflected as a surge in price of as much as 10-20%. This could happen within a matter minutes or hours after the halving.

He believes that the effect of the halving will lead to an increasing in mining activity.

Long term, it could create more value and spur a significant increase in mining. This may not be great because mining has become so much of a zero sum game these days with mega facilities like those in China and other places spending millions of dollars to get blocks.

Featured image from Shutterstock.