With approximately 16 days remaining until Bitcoin‘s block reward halving, a different altcoin has just experienced its own halving. One of the most significant events of this week was the halving of Bitcoin Cash‘s block reward. As expected, it occurred on Thursday (local time) and the rewards per block were halved. So, what happens now?
Bitcoin Cash Halving
The second Bitcoin Cash block reward halving took place on April 4 (local time), or at 10:45 UTC on April 3, reducing miner rewards from 6.25 BCH to 3.125 BCH. The first halving occurred on April 8, 2020, when the miner rewards were cut from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH. Now, Bitcoin Cash has completed its second halving 16 days before Bitcoin.
In anticipation of the halving, the price of Bitcoin Cash increased by 147.85% over the last three months and by 24% in the last 30 days. Although it experienced a $44 drop in the last 24 hours, the expected peak of $705 was reached on the first day of April, before the halving took place.
On March 29, in anticipation of the halving, open interest in futures reached an all-time high of $708 million. Now that the event has occurred, we are witnessing rapid profit-taking by investors and miners. With those ready for short selling springing into action, open interest has now approached $800 million, but both the negativity in BTC and the ‘sell the news’ scenario could bring new lows.
BCH Price Prediction
During the previous halving period, the BCH price climbed to $497 before falling to the $120 level, a roughly 73% drop. Hence, we could potentially see a similar scenario today. The halving decline of 28 days was partly due to the fact that the bull markets had not yet started. But now, the environment is different.
If the scenario repeats, we might see the price drop to $158, similar to the previous rate of decline. On the other hand, considering the current bullish sentiment, a reduced drop could lead to a new bottom in the range of $343-$429.
BCH is currently finding buyers at $594 and has not yet dropped to the critical $500 region. Losses below this level could trigger a pullback to the support levels of $449 and $384, followed by $343.
