The next Bitcoin Cash halving is not tied to a calendar date. It happens at a block: block 1,050,000. From that block on, miners receive 1.5625 BCH per block instead of 3.125 BCH. The countdown on the homepage shows how many blocks are left right now and the date that follows from the current pace.
Why the halving is a block, not a date
Bitcoin Cash inherited its issuance rule from Bitcoin: the block reward is cut in half every 210,000 blocks. The node software calculates the reward from the block height alone. Block 1,049,999 pays 3.125 BCH, block 1,050,000 pays 1.5625 BCH, no matter what day it is.
Blocks are meant to arrive every ten minutes on average, so 210,000 blocks take roughly four years. But the average is never exactly ten minutes. When hashrate joins the network, blocks come a little faster until the difficulty catches up; when hashrate leaves, they come slower.
How the date is estimated
An honest estimate needs two measured values:
- the current block height, which gives the number of blocks left
- the average time per block over a recent window, for example the last 1,008 blocks (about a week)
Blocks left multiplied by that average, added to the time of the newest block, gives the estimated moment. With around 72,000 blocks to go, a pace that is one percent faster or slower moves the date by about five days. That is why any site that prints a single fixed date years in advance is guessing.
At exactly ten minutes per block the halving would fall in early April 2028. The measured pace has usually been slightly faster than the target, which pulls the estimate a few days earlier.
What changes at block 1,050,000
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Block reward | 3.125 BCH | 1.5625 BCH |
| New coins per day at 144 blocks | 450 BCH | 225 BCH |
| New coins per year at the target pace | 164,250 BCH | 82,125 BCH |
Nothing else in the protocol changes on that block. Transactions, fees, block size and addresses work exactly as before.
The halvings so far
Bitcoin Cash shares its first two halvings with Bitcoin, because the chains were one chain until August 2017:
- Block 210,000 on 28 November 2012: 50 to 25 coins
- Block 420,000 on 9 July 2016: 25 to 12.5 coins
- Block 630,000 on 8 April 2020: 12.5 to 6.25 BCH, the first halving on Bitcoin Cash alone
- Block 840,000 on 3 April 2024 (22:45 UTC): 6.25 to 3.125 BCH
Block 1,050,000 will be the fifth.
Does Bitcoin Cash halve before Bitcoin?
Both chains halve at the same block numbers but count their own blocks. Whichever chain has the higher block height reaches block 1,050,000 first. The halving race shows the current heights of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV side by side.
What this guide does not say
A halving reduces the number of new coins. It says nothing certain about the price, and nothing here is a forecast or investment advice.