The Bitcoin Cash network (BCH) hit a major milestone with the completion of its halving event at block height 840,000. The event reduced the mining reward to 3.125 coins per block, a 50% reduction from the previous rate of 6.25 coins. This adjustment is hardcoded in the protocol’s design to decrease rewards over time.
The halving was marked by Viabtc. The mining pool discovered block 840,000, containing 11,905 transactions and rewarding 3.125 BCH.
Prior to this event, the network saw an uptick in mining activity, with the hashrate reaching over 8 exahash per second (EH/s) on April 1. It has since stabilized to approximately 3.78 EH/s as of April 3. The Hashrate first began climbing in February, prior to which the value fluctuated between 1.9 and 2.4 EH/s.
Accompanying these developments, the Bitcoin Cash community is preparing for a network upgrade scheduled for mid-May. This upgrade aims to introduce an adaptive block size limit. This lets the network dynamically adjust to the block size based on the average size of recent blocks.
Per the Gitlab repository, the 32-megabyte block limit will hold true. However, changes will be made to accommodate actual transaction volumes. This slight altercation will help improve the network’s overall efficiency and strengthen its resilience against spam attacks.
Amid these market movements, Coinbase Derivatives has announced plans to introduce a futures product based on Bitcoin Cash. These developments come as Bitcoin Cash’s value has experienced notable growth, surging over 403% in the past year.
Over the past two weeks alone, the price jumped 49%, in line with the hype surrounding the halving event. BCH hit an all-time high of $701 on April 1. However, the price dropped 8.2% against the U.S. dollar hours before the halving. At the time of publication, it has rebounded by 3.9%.
Meanwhile, the crypto industry is closely watching the upcoming Bitcoin halving on April 20, with sentiments remaining bullish. The sentiment was further bolstered by on-chain tracker Coingecko, pointing out that BTC tends to surge an average of 3230% in a year post-halving.
