If transaction fees do not increase significantly, or miners are unable to find alternative sources of income, the long-term viability of bitcoin may be in question, and subsequent halvings will put additional pressure on miners.
However, since coin issuance reduction has less of an impact on relative selling pressure compared to daily trading volume, halving events may be less significant in the future.
"The Evolution of the Bitcoin Network". How will the accumulation of transactions affect the price of an asset
Judging by historical data, it was profitable to invest in bitcoin before the halving.
New experiments with second-tier technologies such as the Lightning payment network or the Stacks smart contract platform could further increase the burden on the blockchain.
This year, there is an upward trend in transaction fees. This is largely due to the emergence and popularization of the so-called ordinals or BRC20 tokens - an analogue of NFTs in the bitcoin blockchain, which require space in the block.
In addition to newly minted bitcoins, miners also earn income in the form of transaction fees. It can be assumed that fees should increase, compensating miners for declining income from issuing new bitcoins.
Despite the fact that the number of new bitcoins mined in each block is halved, the total income of miners after each halving increased, which was due to the increase in the price of bitcoin.
Right now, the bulk of miners’ income comes from the distribution of rewards for finding a block of bitcoin (newly mined bitcoin), in which 6.25 BTC (about $ 187 thousand at the exchange rate at the time of publication) is paid to miners approximately every 10 minutes.
Another expectation from halving is to reduce pressure on the price due to selling, especially from miners. Miners are the most predictable sellers of bitcoin, as they need to cover the cost of maintaining the operation by converting new bitcoins into fiat money.
However, past performance does not guarantee future results, and many other factors influence the price of bitcoin. Moreover, as bitcoin develops and becomes widespread, its price may become less volatile and more stable over time.
Over such a two-year period, in 2012, the growth of the bitcoin rate was about 30,000%, in 2016 - 786%, and in 2020 - 712%. If bitcoin shows the same performance as in the last two periods, its price in 2025 could reach $220,000.