Cryptocurrency market value rises by over $13bn due to halving event

The cryptocurrency market value jumped over $13bn on Friday after a rally in bitcoin which drove the price of the popular crypto over $10,000 for the first time since February.

The rally was caused by investor expectations over the upcoming “halving” event and stimulus measures from global central banks as well as recent interest from institutional investors.

According to CoinDesk bitcoin was trading around $9,900.75 as of 1:39 p.m. Singapore time, still representing a more than 6.4% rise from the day before.

The halving event that will take place on 12 May will see bitcoin’s so-called miners with specialized high-powered computers compete with each other to solve complex math problems to validate bitcoin transactions.

Whoever “wins” this race gets rewarded in newly minted bitcoin.Currently, these miners receive 12.5 bitcoin per block mined but on the halving day the reward per miner will be cut in half again, to 6.25 new bitcoin.

Halving events, which happen every four years, have come before big price increases in bitcoin.