bitcoin halving: Largest US crypto miner says Bitcoin ‘halving’ rally is already partially priced in

Bitcoin’s “halving” later this month, a software code update that is being championed as a catalyst for further price increases, may already be factored in to a degree, according to the head of the largest US crypto miner.

The original cryptocurrency has rallied more than 60% since the start of the year, driven by optimism over record demand for US exchange traded funds that hold the tokens directly. Bitcoin prices have tended to rise in the months after the three previous halving, which takes place every four years.

“I think the ETF approval, which has been a huge success, has attracted capital into the market and essentially brought forward what could have been the price appreciation we typically would have seen three to six months post halving,” Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. CEO Fred Thiel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. “So I think we are seeing part of that now already and that has put forward some of the demand. ”

Marathon, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has several mining facilities across the US including Texas. Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process in which such companies or miners use specialized computers to validate transactions on the original blockchain and earn a reward in the form of the tokens. The halving is set to reduce that reward, which is the main revenue source for miners, by half in late April.“The halving event will reduce the supply of Bitcoin by about 450 a day, which would have some small impact on prices probably,” Thiel said. “But as miners we are very excited to go into a halving, where for once prices have not declined prior to the halving rather prices have gone up so everybody is obviously maximizing to that.”Bitcoin fell for the first time on four trading sessions on Tuesday, dropping about 4% to $68,773. It is down around 7% since the digital asset reached a record of $73,797 on March 14.Marathon’s Thiel estimated that after the halving, the firm’s break-even rate would be about $46,000 per Bitcoin to remain profitable. Shares of Marathon were up less than 1% to $18.08 as of 3:32 p.m. in New York. The stock is down about 23% this year.