Next Bitcoin Halving Could Squeeze out Retail Miners, But Jury’s Split on Price

Is the next halving going to send bitcoin to the moon?

Well, maybe not that fast. As the programmed reduction of the miners’ reward is approaching (expected to happen in May next year), people are disagreeing about its probable effects.

Bitcoin has gone through the halving two times before, in November 2012 and July 2016, and both times the events marked the beginning of the next bull market. But, it’s an open question if the halving brings an uptrend and if so, how strong that uptrend will be.

Miners took the stage to debate the issue last week at the recent World Digital Mining Summit in Frankfurt organized by Bitmain, the Chinese equipment manufacturer and pool owner.

Price effects

Jihan Wu, co-founder and ex-CEO of Bitmain, is “pessimistic” about the prospect of a price surge after the halving. He suggested that the first two uptrends might have been “catching up with the bubble-and-bust cycle” phases at the time.

Further, he pointed to halving of…