Crypto enthusiasts await Bitcoin halving, market remains highly positive

Bitcoin halving countdown: Bitcoin enthusiasts are awaiting Bitcoin's 'halving' on Friday, an event embedded within cryptocurrency's core technology to reduce pace of new Bitcoin creation. 

Scheduled approximately every four years, this feature was originally integrated into Bitcoin's code by its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Chris Gannatti, Global He of Research at asset manager WisdomTree, hailed halving as "one of biggest events in crypto this year." According to CoinGecko's countdown clock, halving was set to transpire in early hours of Saturday GMT.

For some proponents of cryptocurrency, halving underlines Bitcoin's value as an increasingly scarce asset, given Nakamoto's deliberate cap on Bitcoin supply at 21 million tokens. Conversely, sceptics view it merely as a technical justment hyped by speculators to inflate virtual currency's price. 

Mechanically, halving reduces rewards miners receive for generating new tokens, reby heightening cost of introducing new bitcoins into circulation. development follows Bitcoin's price surge to an all-time high of $73,803.25 in March, following a grual recovery from dramatic plunge witnessed in 2022. As of Thursday, world's largest cryptocurrency was tring at $63,800.

Excitement surrounding US Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of spot bitcoin exchange-tred funds in January, coupled with expectations of central bank rate cuts, has boosted Bitcoin and or cryptocurrencies. 

Past halving events occurred in 2012, 2016, and 2020, with some enthusiasts pointing to subsequent price rallies as indicative of potential price boosts following this halving. However, many analysts remain sceptical, with JP Morgan analysts asserting that any price surge has alrey been factored into market. y anticipate a post-halving price decline, citing overbought conditions and subdued venture capital funding in crypto industry this year.

While financial regulators caution against bitcoin's high-risk nature and limited real-world utility, approvals for bitcoin-linked tring products have been grually increasing. 

Andrew O'Neill, a crypto analyst at S&P Global, expressed scepticism regarding predictive value of previous halving events on bitcoin's price, emphasizing multitude of factors at play. Bitcoin has grappled with directionality since March's peak, experiencing recent declines amid geopolitical tensions and expectations of prolonged higher interest rates by central banks, causing unease in global markets.

(With Reuters inputs)