Since the previous halving, the number of crypto users has surged 400%, not including the impact of the spot Bitcoin ETF launch in the United States.
Another Bitcoin halving has come and gone, the fourth so far, and this one was like no other before it, with institutional investment playing a key role for the very first time.
Bitcoin halvings have been historically associated with one essential similarity — a subsequent spike in BTC price, which often occurs some time after the halving.
While the community has yet to find out whether the fourth halving will follow the same path, some things are already different about the Bitcoin halving 2024.
Crypto user base up at least 400% since the 2020 halving
While the speed of new Bitcoin generation has decreased since the first halving, the demand has not stood still.
Since the previous Bitcoin halving — which occurred in May 2020 — the global crypto user base has added at least around 400 million users, based on various sources.
In 2020, the number of crypto owners worldwide counted around 100 million users, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) estimations. By the end of 2023, the number of global crypto users surged to as high as 580 million people, as estimated by crypto exchange Crypto.com.
Despite Bitcoin being the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the oldest, it apparently has fewer users than the entire crypto ecosystem.
According to data from Technopedia, approximately 2.7% of the global population is estimated to own Bitcoin as of 2024, which translates to around 219 million people. If accurate, the estimated figure is up around 208% from 71 million Bitcoin users four years ago, as calculated by Crypto.com.
With Bitcoin or most other cryptocurrencies, most user count estimations can not be 100% accurate, as on-chain transaction analysis is often incapable of differentiating between long-term holders and lost BTC, as well as other factors.
2024 pre-halving Bitcoin rally has not been seen before
One of the biggest differences between the fourth Bitcoin halving and the three past halvings is that the price has seen extraordinary growth pre-halving in 2024.
In the previous cycles, Bitcoin price recorded breakouts after the halving rather than before, and new all-time highs came roughly one year following the halving date.
Source: cointelegraph.com
