From May 12, 2020 the bitcoin reward for those on the network – in other words, the miners – will be halved from 12.5 to 6.25 per block.

Bitcoin’s slowdown will only add to the rarity of the coin, which will reach a maximum of 21 million coins once mining is complete.

In theory, the coin’s price should rise when the laws of supply and demand kick in, which was the narrative seen the last two times the crypto asset halved in 2012. and 2016

Apollo Capital CIO and co-founder Henrik Andersson explained in a conversation with Investor Daily sister publication nestegg why he is bullish on the crypto asset, which is still outperforming equity markets.

"I think it will have a positive impact over time. I think that will happen in the next six months," explained Mr Anderson

“Today, about 1,800 bitcoins are mined per day. From May 12, it will be reduced to 900 bitcoins per day, so you will have less pressure to sell bitcoins going forward by about $8 million per day, which will have a positive impact on the price.”

The crypto trader said that we simply lack history to know if the coin will rise again in the short term, although the rise in 2012. marked 90 times growth for the asset.

“I think we've only had three of these events in the past, it's only happened twice in the past because it's programmed into the bitcoin software to halve every four years. So we don't have a lot of history, but basically there will be less bitcoin, which should have a positive impact in the long term,” Mr. Andresson continued.

The timing could be good for the alternative currency as central banks around the world do the exact opposite to support global economies, with Australia's central bank alone adding $90 billion to the system through cheap credit.

"I think once we've seen the response to the current crisis in the world, we're going to see even more money being printed, which could devalue our common currencies even more," Mr. Andresson said.

“This is partly why Bitcoin was created to create an alternative to central banks that can print an unlimited amount of money.

"This is not the case with Bitcoin, we have a limited supply of 21 million coins and no one can change that."

Investors who may think that the opportunity to buy new crypto assets such as Bitcoin is over due to the already strong growth, are advised that the asset class still has some work to do.

“We believe there is still upside potential in crypto assets, not just Bitcoin, but other assets as well. Bitcoin is relatively small compared to other assets. It mainly trades in the market capitalization of a large technology company. For it to be a new asset class, it has to be much bigger than it is today,” he said.

"If traditional investors really see this as a new kind of gold, perhaps digital gold, I think we'll see more institutional investors enter the space and that will drive higher values ​​going forward."

Addressing skeptics of the asset class – particularly those who note that bitcoin has fallen during market panics, which is the opposite of what traditional hedging does – Mr Anderson argued that bitcoin still outperforms every other asset class .

“During the market panic in March, we saw the correlation between all asset markets rise. "Really what happened was the external factor that the virus hit all the markets at the same time," he said.

“I think these correlations will go down going forward.

“But if you look at the year to date, crypto assets have outperformed all asset classes. Year to date, Bitcoin is up 20 percent, which is more than gold, and as we know, equity markets are down this year.”