With the Bitcoin Block Reward halving from 25BTC to 12.5BTC on the 10th July 2016 it makes you wonder if we will have another run up
So far the price action is suggesting we will however it's also the recent increases in the hash rate that suggests this halving is on peoples minds, seems the miners are trying to get the most out of their rigs before the halving
NiceHash just announced last night that they will soon be quoting their SHA256 contracts in PH/s (Petahash per second) rather than TH/s (Terahash per second) due to the recent increase in the global SHA256 hash rate
So if miners are increasing their hash rate at additional cost now, something tells me they may be holding on to what they can until some time after the halving when they can adjust to the new output and the new network hash rate.
Obviously if there was a price spike this would encourage more miners to continue mining and also to add additional miners.
Probably worth noting as well that we have already mined nearly 65% of all the available Bitcoin leaving only around 35% left to be mined, we have done this effectively in only 7.5 years yet we will not mine the final 35% until another 124 years, expected final block to be mined 7th of May 2140.
I except as we get closer to this halving date we will continue to see the price push higher as well as the network hash rate continue to spike, once we break the old highs I expect a similar price spike as we have seen in the past. We have had a long period now of consolidation yet the next price spike can occur rapidly. Perhaps seeing a new high in the US$3,000-US$6,000 range before retreating again.
Something I will be very interested to follow is the BTC:LTC, Litecoin seems to play catch up with Bitcoin and overtake it in percentage terms during rallies, though at some point I expect Litecoin to break this pattern as other alternatives begin to trade closer to Bitcoin, whether or not it will make this break this time is not certain.
I'm not sure if Litecoin will follow Bitcoins shadows in this rally or not, but it will be interesting to watch. Litecoin has just recently started to move again suggesting it may make some fantastic gains this year however I consider it a much more risky bet than Bitcoin.
So far the price action is suggesting we will however it's also the recent increases in the hash rate that suggests this halving is on peoples minds, seems the miners are trying to get the most out of their rigs before the halving
NiceHash just announced last night that they will soon be quoting their SHA256 contracts in PH/s (Petahash per second) rather than TH/s (Terahash per second) due to the recent increase in the global SHA256 hash rate
So if miners are increasing their hash rate at additional cost now, something tells me they may be holding on to what they can until some time after the halving when they can adjust to the new output and the new network hash rate.
Obviously if there was a price spike this would encourage more miners to continue mining and also to add additional miners.
Probably worth noting as well that we have already mined nearly 65% of all the available Bitcoin leaving only around 35% left to be mined, we have done this effectively in only 7.5 years yet we will not mine the final 35% until another 124 years, expected final block to be mined 7th of May 2140.
I except as we get closer to this halving date we will continue to see the price push higher as well as the network hash rate continue to spike, once we break the old highs I expect a similar price spike as we have seen in the past. We have had a long period now of consolidation yet the next price spike can occur rapidly. Perhaps seeing a new high in the US$3,000-US$6,000 range before retreating again.
Something I will be very interested to follow is the BTC:LTC, Litecoin seems to play catch up with Bitcoin and overtake it in percentage terms during rallies, though at some point I expect Litecoin to break this pattern as other alternatives begin to trade closer to Bitcoin, whether or not it will make this break this time is not certain.
I'm not sure if Litecoin will follow Bitcoins shadows in this rally or not, but it will be interesting to watch. Litecoin has just recently started to move again suggesting it may make some fantastic gains this year however I consider it a much more risky bet than Bitcoin.
