Bitcoin Keeps Breaking Records, But Each Halving Cycle Delivers Smaller Gains

Bitcoin’s (BTC) historical price trajectory highlights a clear ￰0￱ the asset has consistently climbed to new highs after each halving, the gains have ￰1￱ fact, new research revealed that “the degree of post-halving price gains has compressed over time since the second halving.” Returns Are Shrinking Fast Halvings, which reduce the rate of new Bitcoin entering circulation, have slashed block rewards by 87.5% since 2012 – from 25 BTC to the current 3.125 ￰2￱ has fueled scarcity narratives that have long supported upward price ￰3￱ this period, Bitcoin’s value has surged more than 9,110-fold, hitting $109,000 on September 1, 2025. A month later, the crypto asset has risen above $120,000.

Despite this, CoinGecko stated that the magnitude of returns post-halving has ￰4￱ second halving cycle in 2017 delivered peak gains of 29x, the 2021 cycle dropped to 6.7x, and the latest run in 2025 has seen a comparatively modest 93.1% increase. Interestingly, the cycle’s rhythm changed when Bitcoin posted a record $73,400 in March 2024 – months before the fourth halving -challenging historical expectations. Meanwhile, market activity has exploded, as evidenced by daily trading volumes surging from approximately $20 million in 2013 to nearly $30 billion in ￰5￱ has not deterred publicly listed companies from increasingly adopting Bitcoin as a treasury ￰6￱ of October 3rd, 1,040,061 BTC was held by almost 200 listed firms, which is almost 5% of the total BTC ￰7￱ leads with 640,031 ￰8￱ to data compiled by Bitcoin Treasuries, this represents 63.2% of all corporate-held Bitcoin, and added another 4,048 BTC on September ￰9￱ new companies are making significant moves into ￰10￱ One, backed by Tether, Bitfinex, Cantor Fitzgerald, and SoftBank, has purchased 43,514 BTC since ￰11￱ has now become the third-largest corporate holder.

Meanwhile, US-based healthcare firm KindlyMD expanded its holdings through a merger with Nakamoto BTC Holdings, and added 5,765 ￰12￱ had also announced plans to raise $5 billion for treasury growth. Internationally, organizations like MetaPlanet in Japan and Treasury BV in Europe are building sizable Bitcoin treasuries, with Treasury BV raising $147 million to acquire more than 1,000 BTC. Bitcoin’s Backbone Strengthens While institutional holdings climb, the network itself has seen remarkable expansion in computational ￰13￱ Bitcoin network’s mining hash rate has been on a steady upward trajectory, as participation from both individual miners and institutional players has kept ￰14￱ the past year alone, the hash rate surged 88%, from 670 million TH/s to 1.266 ZH/s.

Under the Trump administration, the US mining ecosystem has expanded, aided in part by the relocation of Chinese mining hardware manufacturers such as Bitmain, Canaan, and MicroBT to the US, spurred by tariffs and regulatory pressures. Meanwhile, domestic firms including HIVE, Hut 8, Marathon, and CleanSpark are increasingly prioritizing alternative energy sources for new ￰15￱ to the momentum, Eric Trump recently co-founded American Bitcoin Corp, which debuted on the Nasdaq.