The latest analysis from Glassnode suggests that Bitcoin’s fourth halving event may have seen the digital asset surpass gold in terms of issuance scarcity.
“The fourth halving represents a significant milestone in the comparison between Bitcoin and Gold, as for the first time in history, Bitcoin’s stable issuance rate (0.83%) becomes lower than that of Gold (approximately 2.3% ), marking a historic transfer in the title of the scarcest asset”, stated Glassnode analysts.
Bitcoin outperforms gold with lower issuance rate
Last Friday’s halving event (19) reduced the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This resulted in an issuance of around 450 Bitcoins per day, as per the report.
This observation was also highlighted by Ark Investment Management analyst Yassine Elmandjra. He reported in this week’s Ark Disrupt newsletter that “after the halving, Bitcoin’s issuance rate fell below long-term gold supply growth.”
Elmandjra puts the annual gold issuance rate below that cited in the Glassnode report. Still, the annual gold issuance rate was significantly higher than the annual post-halving Bitcoin supply growth.
“Last Friday, Bitcoin supply growth slowed for the fourth time in history, dropping from around 1.8% annual rate to around 0.9%. As a result, Bitcoin supply growth has lagged that of gold, estimated at around 1.7% in 2023 on a long-term basis,” Elmandjra stated.
However, Glassnode analysts clarified that the impact of Bitcoin halving events on available traded supply may be decreasing across cycles. This is occurring not only due to the reduction in mined coins, but also because the size of the asset and the ecosystem around it are expanding.
Bitcoin registered an increase of almost 1.2% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency on the market is costing US$66,064, according to data from CoinGecko.
