Everyone in the crypto world knows about Bitcoin’s halving. It’s one of the most anticipated events in the crypto space, cutting miner rewards in half every four years.
The idea is simple: by reducing the number of new bitcoins entering circulation, inflation is kept under control, and scarcity is enforced. Many believe this mechanism helps Bitcoin maintain its long-term value.
But what about other cryptocurrencies? These days, most projects opt for different token models – burning mechanisms, scheduled unlocks, or simply pre-mining the entire supply from the start. However, a handful of cryptocurrencies still follow Bitcoin’s path, using halving events to regulate their emissions.
Table of Contents
Bitcoin Forks: The Expected Candidates
Since Bitcoin was the first to introduce halving, it’s no surprise that many of its direct forks have the same feature.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are the most well-known examples. Both of these coins work almost identically to Bitcoin: they have a 21 million coin supply limit, a 10-minute block time, and halving events every four years. Their last halving took place in April 2024, and the next one is expected in 2028. The main difference between them and Bitcoin? Their communities and some ideological disagreements on scalability.
Zcash (ZEC): A Fork with Privacy in Mind
Zcash also originates from Bitcoin’s codebase, but it has one key difference – privacy. Unlike Bitcoin, which keeps all transactions public on the blockchain, Zcash allows users to send shielded transactions that hide sender, receiver, and amount.
Despite this difference, Zcash still follows the halving model. It started with a block reward of 12.5 ZEC, not Bitcoin’s original 50 BTC, meaning its rewards are already much lower. Halving happens every four years, but it’s not synchronized with Bitcoin – its last halving was in May 2023, and the next is set for 2027. Unlike other Bitcoin forks, Zcash has a faster block time of 75 seconds, which keeps its network running efficiently.
Litecoin (LTC): The Biggest Halving Coin After Bitcoin?
Litecoin is one of the few large-cap cryptocurrencies that still follows a halving schedule. Created in 2011, it’s often called the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” It has faster transaction speeds, a slightly different mining algorithm, and a higher total supply (84 million instead of 21 million).
Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin halves every four years, reducing the block reward each time. However, since its genesis block was mined almost three years after Bitcoin, its halvings are also offset by three years. The last halving took place in August 2023, and the next will happen in October 2027, cutting the block reward to 3.125 LTC.
Nervos Network (CKB): A Different Take on Halving
Nervos is a bit different from the other projects mentioned so far. It doesn’t just halve block rewards – it also halves something called the epoch reward. In simple terms, this means that not only do individual miners get less over time, but the reward pool for each four-hour epoch is also reduced.
Nervos had its first halving in November 2023, four years after its genesis block was mined in 2019. This schedule will continue – in 2059 block rewards will drop to just 1 CKB per block. The final halving is set for 2103, after which mining rewards will effectively be zero.
DASH: The Slow and Steady Halving Model
DASH used to be one of the most popular cryptocurrencies back in 2018. These days, it’s more of a niche project, but it still has an interesting approach to halving.
Instead of slashing the block reward in half every four years, DASH does things differently – it reduces rewards by 7.14% every 383.25 days. This makes the supply decrease more gradual, avoiding the sudden shocks that Bitcoin and Litecoin miners experience. The idea is to smooth out the emission curve, making it easier for miners to adapt to lower rewards over time.
Dogecoin? Wait, Dogecoin Had Halvings?
Believe it or not, Dogecoin used to have halvings. When it was first created as a joke based on Litecoin’s code, it followed a similar structure. However, there was one major difference – Dogecoin halvings happened much faster. Instead of every four years, they occurred every 69 days.
Because of this accelerated schedule, Dogecoin ran through all its planned halvings by 2015. After that, the project’s developers decided to remove halvings entirely and instead introduced a fixed mining reward of 10,000 DOGE per block. This is still in place today, making Dogecoin one of the few proof-of-work coins with an unlimited supply.
Why Do So Few Coins Use Halving?
With so many projects choosing alternative methods to control inflation, it’s worth asking: why do so few cryptocurrencies still use halvings?
The answer lies in predictability. Many newer projects prefer more flexible ways to adjust supply, such as token burns or staking rewards. Halving events, while effective, can cause significant market disruptions. When miner rewards are suddenly cut in half, some miners may shut down operations, leading to slower transaction times and higher fees – at least until the network adjusts.
That being said, halving remains a tried-and-tested method of controlling inflation. While most new projects have moved away from it, Bitcoin and a handful of others continue to prove that the model still works.
With Bitcoin’s next halving set for 2028, it will be interesting to see whether these other halving-based cryptocurrencies will also gain attention – or if they will continue to stay in Bitcoin’s shadow.
Read Also: What Happens When All Bitcoins Are Mined?
