Bitcoin Halving Countdown: When Is the Next Bitcoin Halving?

Blocks remaining to block 1,050,000

81,605

Halving epoch 61% complete128,395 / 210,000 blocks

Current block height (live)

968,395

Block subsidy

3.125 BTC → 1.5625 BTC

At exactly 10-minute blocks:

~13 April 2028

At bitcoin's long-run average of 9.58-minute blocks:

~20 March 2028

Block height from mempool.space, read in your browser. The halving fires on block height, not on a date — every date on this page is an estimate derived from that block count.

This is educational analysis, not financial advice. A halving is a change to bitcoin's issuance schedule, not a price event. Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from a cycle high three times. A BIS study of retail crypto app users across 95 countries from 2015 to 2022 estimated that 73-81% of them likely lost money on their initial investment. Nothing on this page is a reason to buy or sell.

When is the next bitcoin halving?

The next bitcoin halving happens when block 1,050,000 is mined, which is 81,605 blocks away (live, 24 September 2026). Any calendar date attached to it is derived from that block count and an assumed block time, not scheduled. The only certain fact is the block number.

Bitcoin's consensus rules cut the subsidy every 210,000 blocks and contain no clock for it. Block times vary with hash rate and are only pulled back toward ten minutes every 2,016 blocks by the difficulty adjustment, so the date floats while the block height stays fixed.

What is the next bitcoin halving date, and how firm is it?

There is no fixed date for the next bitcoin halving. Published estimates read on 24 September 2026 cluster in March-April 2028 and differ by weeks, because each one assumes a different block time.

Published halving date estimates, read 24 September 2026

The honest spread is about three and a half weeks, and it widens or narrows with network hash rate. No estimate in the table is more correct than the others; each is internally consistent with its own assumption.

What is the bitcoin halving schedule?

Bitcoin halves its block subsidy every 210,000 blocks. Four halvings have happened, the fifth is at block 1,050,000, and there are 33 in total before the subsidy rounds below one satoshi.

Bitcoin halving dates and block heights

Dates for the first four halvings are the dates the trigger block was mined; block 840,000 was mined just after midnight UTC on 20 April 2024, so some sources date it 19 April. Block heights for future halvings are fixed; their years are derived from the 210,000-block interval and will drift. Sources: CoinWarz and BitRef, read 24 September 2026.

The subsidy continues halving until it rounds below one satoshi, expected around 2140, after 33 halvings in total.

How is the btc halving countdown calculated?

Subtract the current block height from 1,050,000 and multiply the remainder by an assumed block time. That is the whole calculation, and the assumed block time is the only place any judgement enters.

1. Halving block: 1,050,000
2. Current block height: 968,395 (live)
3. Blocks remaining: 81,605
4. At 10 minutes a block: 567 days
5. At 9.576 minutes a block: 543 days

The 9.576 figure can be checked by hand. The genesis block was mined on 3 January 2009 and block 840,000 on 20 April 2024: 5,586 days, or 8,043,840 minutes, across 840,000 blocks — an average of 9.576 minutes per block.

Why do bitcoin halving countdowns disagree with each other?

A halving date is a forecast of future hash rate, and every countdown makes a different assumption about it. None is authoritative and none can be.

• The block time window. An all-time average, the trailing 2,016-block difficulty epoch and the trailing week each give a different minutes-per-block figure.
• The starting block height. An estimate is only as current as the height it was computed from.
• Refresh frequency. A countdown that has not been recomputed since publication keeps reporting an old answer.

A countdown that hardcoded its block height four weeks ago is wrong by roughly 4,200 blocks today, which is about a month of drift in the date it reports. Check the "as of" date on any countdown before trusting it.

What changes at block 1,050,000, and what does not?

Exactly one thing changes at block 1,050,000: the block subsidy falls from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. The supply cap, target block time, transaction fees, difficulty adjustment and every other protocol rule are unchanged.

What the halving changes

Nothing about the halving requires any action from a holder. There is no wallet migration, no claim and no deadline. Anyone who contacts you about a halving action is running a scam.

For why halvings have historically coincided with market cycles, and why the cycle peak multiple has fallen every cycle, see the bitcoin halving guide.

How much bitcoin is left to mine before the next halving?

Roughly 95.7% of the 21 million cap has been issued (live, 24 September 2026), leaving about 911,000 BTC to be issued over roughly the next century. The current epoch is about 61% complete.

This is the subsidy schedule's output, not a measured circulating supply. The real figure is a few dozen BTC lower because some early miners underclaimed the subsidy and the genesis block's 50 BTC is unspendable, and an unknown further quantity is permanently lost to discarded keys. This page does not put a number on lost coins.

What should a long-term holder do about the countdown?

Nothing that depends on the date. The halving is public, dated years ahead and priced by a liquid market, so a countdown offers no informational edge; the decisions that matter are position size and rebalancing rules, set in advance.

Drawdown comes first. Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from a cycle high three separate times. The BIS working paper cited above estimated that 73-81% of retail crypto app users across 95 countries lost money on their initial investment between 2015 and 2022. Size a position that survives that, then think about cycles.

The event is fully known. The block, the subsidy change and the approximate date are public years in advance, so a market should price the supply change before it happens rather than after.

Waiting on the date has a cost. The estimate will drift by weeks, and holding cash for eighteen months to deploy on a forecast date is a real opportunity cost with no demonstrated payoff.

For sizing, see the crypto portfolio strategy guide; for the rules that decide when to trade, see the crypto rebalancing strategies guide. The Hot Coins Tracker is the nine-year record of CryptoBull picks, measured by all-time-high return from the original call date.

Frequently asked questions

Continue learning

Start from the Crypto Guides hub for the full research library. For the market context behind the current drawdown, see our June 2026 selloff analysis.

Trusted Resources

• Bitcoin whitepaper — accessed September 24, 2026
• mempool.space block explorer — accessed September 24, 2026
• CoinWarz bitcoin halving countdown — accessed September 24, 2026
• CoinGecko bitcoin halving countdown — accessed September 24, 2026
• BitRef halving schedule — accessed September 24, 2026
• BIS Working Paper 1049, Auer, Cornelli, Doerr, Frost and Gambacorta, 14 November 2022 — accessed September 24, 2026