The second-ever halving event for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has recently occurred, reducing miner rewards from 6.25 BCH to 3.125 BCH at block height 840,000, as of 10:45 pm UTC on April 3.
Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency and blockchain network that operates on a proof-of-work system. It was specifically designed to offer faster and cheaper transactions compared to Bitcoin (BTC). The first BCH halving took place on April 8, 2020, when miner rewards were reduced from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH.
Speculation has been rife leading up to the halving, with the price of Bitcoin Cash surging by 147.85% in the past three months and 24% in the past 30 days. However, over the last 24 hours, it has experienced a 9.94% drop. As of now, it is trading at $572.21, according to CoinMarketCap data.
This recent price decline has resulted in liquidations totaling $3.9 million, primarily affecting long positions ($3.3 million) rather than short positions ($569,540), as reported by CoinGlass.
Long positions in Bitcoin Cash were liquidated, amounting to $3.3 million, following the decrease in price.
On March 29, Cointelegraph reported that the open interest in Bitcoin Cash futures perpetual contracts had reached an all-time high of $708.75 million. Since then, the open interest has continued to rise, reaching a new high of $799.23 million.
In the lead-up to the halving, one user named “DavidShares” informed his 17,500 followers that many miners had already switched to mining Bitcoin in anticipation of the event.
In 2017, Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin due to disagreements within the community regarding scaling solutions and transaction fees. Two years later, another split occurred, leading to controversy among miners who had not upgraded to the new chain, resulting in wasted resources.
In November 2019, it was reported that miners had wasted resources mining 14 empty blocks on the old chain, which was already deemed invalid and rejected by the majority of the Bitcoin Cash network.
According to Bitcoin Man, a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency space, China will play a significant role in driving the Bitcoin bull run, with predictions of the price reaching $1 million by 2028.