The Bitcoin Halving Cycle Explained: Phases, Dates and History

By the GasNow team · Updated October 9, 2026

What the halving is

New bitcoins enter circulation as the block subsidy paid to the miner of each block. Every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years, the protocol cuts that subsidy in half. The schedule is written into Bitcoin's code and caps the total supply at 21 million coins.

Halving history

The four-year cycle pattern

Each halving reduced new supply entering the market. In past cycles, Bitcoin's price went through recognizable phases relative to the halving: an accumulation period before it, a strong expansion in the year or so after, a distribution phase near the cycle peak, and a prolonged bear market before the next accumulation. The pattern has been visible across four cycles, though the size of each rally has diminished as the market matured.

How GasNow tracks the cycle

The Bitcoin halving cycle page reads the current block height and computes how far the network is between the last halving at block 840,000 and the next at 1,050,000. That cycle progress, combined with where the current price sits relative to the cycle's range, is compared with the same point in previous cycles to label the dominant phase.

Why miners and fees matter here

Each halving cuts miner revenue from the subsidy. Over the long term, transaction fees are expected to make up a larger share of miner income. That makes fee dynamics, which you can follow on the Bitcoin fee tracker, increasingly important to network security.

Caveats

Four cycles is a small sample. Macroeconomic conditions, spot ETF flows and institutional adoption now influence Bitcoin's price far more than in earlier cycles. Treat the cycle view as historical context, not a schedule the market must follow.