The next Bitcoin halving event is less than 100 blocks away. The rough countdown is based on Bitcoin’s average block generation time of 10 minutes, which puts the potential time to reach the halving block height of 840,000 blocks just after midnight GMT on April 20 (8 p.m. ET today).

Halving is scheduled to automatically updаte after every 210,000 blocks – approximately every four years. At the time of halving, miners receive 50 percent fewer bitcoins as rewards for each transaction block they add to the blockchain. However, they still receive additional rewards for processing transactions in each block as before.

There have been three halvings in Bitcoin’s history, with subsidy inflation per block reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC in 2012, 12.5 BTC in 2016, and 6.25 BTC during the most recent halving on May 11, 2020. With the latest halving, the reward for miners on the Bitcoin network will drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. In the long run, there will only be 21 million bitcoins on the network.

Halving will continue until the last bitcoin is mined around 2140. After that, miners will only earn money from transaction fees.

On Wednesday, analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein said they expect bitcoin to resume growth after halving, reiterating a target of $150,000 by the end of 2025. On the other hand, Coinify CEO Rikke Staer suggested that the halving is a “sell the news” event, as less efficient miners may be forced to sell their existing bitcoin holdings, potentially outstripping demand.

While miners’ revenues have increased this year on the back of the rising bitcoin price, the extent to which the halving will affect less efficient mining operations and therefore the overall performance of the network after the subsidy cut remains to be seen.

Following the market, Bitcoin is currently trading at $64,776, up 6% over the April 18-19 period. Bitcoin briefly dipped below the $60,000 mark today amid reports that Israeli missiles struck a facility in Iran, but then recovered sharply.