Bitcoin Halving Two-Years Anniversary: Annual inflation rate drops to 0.85%, officially becoming a rarer asset than gold

April 2024’s Bitcoin fourth halving is approaching its two-year anniversary. According to data from Cointelegraph and Glassnode, this halving will bring Bitcoin’s annual inflation rate down to about 0.85%, officially below gold’s approximate 1.5–2% annual supply growth rate—making Bitcoin surpass gold in supply scarcity for the first time.

Halving mechanism: code commitment to cut the supply in half every four years

Bitcoin’s halving (halving) is a monetary policy written into the code: for every 210,000 blocks produced (about four years), the block reward miners receive is cut in half. The April 2024 halving reduces the reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, directly slowing the rate at which new bitcoins enter circulation.

Unlike gold, Bitcoin’s scarcity comes from code rather than natural resource constraints. Gold’s extraction volume is limited by geological conditions and mining technology, whereas Bitcoin reduces its issuance with precise regularity according to fixed block intervals—making it the most predictable monetary asset in human history.

93% already mined, only 1.32 million left

As of April 2026, more than 19.68 million out of the fixed total supply of 21 million have already been mined, accounting for over 93%. The remaining roughly 1.32 million will be released gradually over the next 114 years, until all are mined by around 2140.

This means Bitcoin’s supply growth rate will keep declining. The next halving is expected in April 2028, when the block reward will be cut in half again to 1.5625 BTC, and the annual inflation rate will fall further to about 0.4%.

Price performance after the halving

Historically, each halving is often accompanied by a notable price increase in the following 12–18 months, even though the size of the gains has narrowed after each successive halving. After the 2024 halving, Bitcoin recently touched $72,000, but due to geopolitical factors such as the U.S.-Iran conflict, price action has been more volatile than in the prior few cycles.

It is worth noting that this halving cycle has a fundamental difference from the earlier ones: large-scale participation by institutional investors. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the entry of traditional financial institutions provide the market with a new source of demand, but they also make Bitcoin’s price more deeply linked to macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical events.

The long-term significance of the scarcity narrative

The fact that Bitcoin’s annual inflation rate is lower than gold reinforces the narrative foundation of “digital gold.” For investors who view Bitcoin as a store of value, the supply cap guaranteed by code and the continuously declining issuance rate are characteristics that no other asset can replicate. With every halving, this trait will only become more pronounced.

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