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This article is more than 2 years old.

July 9, 2016 This article is more than 2 years old.

The biggest event of the year in bitcoin just happened.

The network saw its mining reward—the amount of bitcoin miners receive for confirming transaction—get cut in half earlier today (July 9), around 12:48 EST. The event occurs after every 210,000 blocks are mined, or confirmed, by the system.

It’s a significant moment for the bitcoin community. As we explained, the event was programmed into the system by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. For miners, it results in a big drop in revenue—for one block mined, a miner would make around $16,000. Now, it’s $8,000.

In the long term, experts think the halvening could spur bitcoin’s price to new heights. A little over a year after the first bitcoin halving event in November 2012, the price reached an all time high north of $1,000.

In the short term, there has been a bit of a drop, but nothing too dramatic. The bitcoin network seems stable though, and the price has already started to climb back up.

For more details on the bitcoin halving event, check out our explainer.