A noob question.

[Wardrick]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.   

The halving of the reward is only one factor. Of course if the demand reduces more than the supply then the price will go down.
But the halving means a price increase is more likely (just likely).

As far as I can comprehend (because I am an economics noob) less supply = high price. That was at least what my teachers taught me, but what if less supply = less demand? Would the expected price still high or no? Sorry but I cannot really get it.

Near??? still 72 weeks away, a lifetime in bitcoin time
http://bitcoinclock.com/

I don't time events like some any other market trader, but considering I am in a different environment, 72 weeks is indeed ages to count.

As far as the average Bitcoin user is concerned, I don't think this process has a lot to do with how they view Bitcoin or if they will buy or sell it. That said, it wouldn't make sense to think that less supply = less demand. Less supply will cause the market to rise not only because less supply + same demand = more difficult to obtain, but because people will see the rise it causes and want to get into Bitcoin. People will view Bitcoin as more successful the more expensive it gets, thus causing more attraction. That is, if the massive rise and falls and market volatility from time to time don't keep people away.

[randy8777]

i think people are expecting too much from the halving which is still over a year away from now.
less supply mostly results in higher demand, but what if the demand at that time reaches a record low?
don't get excited too quickly. good reminder.

[9000]

Usually mining reward decrease has no effect on the price.

Currently there are 3600 new coins every day, just in the last 24 hours bitcoin trade volume is above 150,000 coins, 3600 coins if immediately dumped by miners has no effect on price.

Where did you get the BTC150k figure? From here I see the volume is about $2-7 million (~15k or 20k BTC) per day on most days, with exceptions.

Reducing the daily reward from BTC3,600 to BTC1,800 would definitely have an effect.
Of course that's just a factor as I said before.

Here: https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

At winkdex.com shows 88k+ and it doesn't even count Chinese exchanges.

[eizh]

Usually mining reward decrease has no effect on the price.

Currently there are 3600 new coins every day, just in the last 24 hours bitcoin trade volume is above 150,000 coins, 3600 coins if immediately dumped by miners has no effect on price.

Where did you get the BTC150k figure? From here I see the volume is about $2-7 million (~15k or 20k BTC) per day on most days, with exceptions.

Reducing the daily reward from BTC3,600 to BTC1,800 would definitely have an effect.
Of course that's just a factor as I said before.

There's definitely something wrong with their numbers. Typical daily USD volume is actually in the neighborhood of $15-20 million.

[odolvlobo]

Usually mining reward decrease has no effect on the price.

Currently there are 3600 new coins every day, just in the last 24 hours bitcoin trade volume is above 150,000 coins, 3600 coins if immediately dumped by miners has no effect on price.

Where did you get the BTC150k figure? From here I see the volume is about $2-7 million (~15k or 20k BTC) per day on most days, with exceptions.
Reducing the daily reward from BTC3,600 to BTC1,800 would definitely have an effect.
Of course that's just a factor as I said before.

There's definitely something wrong with their numbers. Typical daily USD volume is actually in the neighborhood of $15-20 million.

Bitfinex alone reports 70k BTC volume per day, which is about $20 million. The blockchain.info numbers (15k - 20k BTC) cannot be the total of all exchanges.

But, the point I really wanted to make is that the supply is not just the number of new bitcoins because bitcoins are not consumed.

Also, remember that supply and demand are not simple numbers. They are functions in which the quantity depends on the price (or vice versa).

[derellkeefe]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.   

Near??? still 72 weeks away, a lifetime in bitcoin time
http://bitcoinclock.com/

thank you for the link!

[Q7]

Well the halving means reduction in bitcoin supply by 50 percent and if the demand maintains the same as per current rate, theoretically we should see the price moving up. However like what you ask per the scenario basis, if lets say demand slows down a bit dropping by only 10 percent, overall we should still see the price going up.

[Possum577]

Did we see much price increase correlated to the last halving? I don't think so. But perhaps that rate (from 50 to 25) still wasn't enough to cause a shortage of supply over demand.

[dothebeats]

Did we see much price increase correlated to the last halving? I don't think so. But perhaps that rate (from 50 to 25) still wasn't enough to cause a shortage of supply over demand.

Well if the price didn't increase, I assume that there is not enough demand to account with the then reduced supply. This statement is based on what I've learned so far from this thread.

[Wardrick]

Did we see much price increase correlated to the last halving? I don't think so. But perhaps that rate (from 50 to 25) still wasn't enough to cause a shortage of supply over demand.

Well if the price didn't increase, I assume that there is not enough demand to account with the then reduced supply. This statement is based on what I've learned so far from this thread.

The massive rise and falls in the price of Bitcoin can have a lot to do with large businesses and whales hording Bitcoin and then dropping it all at once for a massive profit. This is plausible and would affect the market in such a way that even if Bitcoin supply were to decrease the demand would stay relatively the same because it is based on an artificial market where the demand is already much less than that of which Bitcoin is being produced. Bitcoin popularity has been rising gradually and it wouldn't make sense for their to be a large jump in price after halving soley because of the "new" demand. I would think that the majority of Bitcoin in circulation right now have already been around for quite awhile.  

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

Did we see much price increase correlated to the last halving? I don't think so. But perhaps that rate (from 50 to 25) still wasn't enough to cause a shortage of supply over demand.

Well if the price didn't increase, I assume that there is not enough demand to account with the then reduced supply. This statement is based on what I've learned so far from this thread.

Price is not a valid indicator right now, too much confusion and potential big agendas trying to keep it down so they can keep eating cheap coins like hungry whales.

[deisik]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Miners' contribution to bitcoin market price (or rather its fluctuations) through supply of new coins is insignificant at best. Not that it is completely irrelevant, but it is more often than not overridden (with a vengeance) by other factors, many of which are purely speculative ("pump-and-dump" being one of them)...

[Erdogan]

Be aware that supply is the coins that current holders have and want to sell for a price, and are brought to the market by offering them in an exchange (for example) or are sold to someone offering to buy. That is, people who wants to reduce their holdings and acts upon that.

The number of coins in existence is not supply in the market sense, it is just that (number of coins in existence), you could also call it total coin volume.

[EsBitcoin.org]

Halving is coming!
http://bitcoinclock.com/

[grendel25]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.   

If there's one thing certain about bitcoin it's the uncertainty of what the price will be given a myriad of factors.  A lot of people think the price is higher than it should be right now and just as many people think it should be worth a lot more.  So it all depends on how well the current support carries on and how the further development of bitcoin unfolds.  There is "A TON" of infrastructure support already in place for bitcoin which gives it a big advantage over other cryptos and that will likely eventually build stability that is inline with it's structure. 

[flyingplows]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.    

I somehow think that regulations and the stance of governments towards bitcoin will play a huge role here. In my eyes governments of china and usa are still waiting for btc to reach bigger adoption and price and then they will seize big amount of money btc from people. Halving should happen first and if there would not be a huge price decline due to issues of strict and enforced regulations, the price should increase.
But then again - increase from where? Probably from the price near to halving and we dont know what it would be.  

[TTMNewsMJ]

i dont care if the price will rise or not but we should definitely make a halving party  !

Yes. I agree with you.
I don't care about the price of the bitcoin.

[StevenLiang]

Halving is coming!
http://bitcoinclock.com/

Bitcoin is a bubble, you need to know that. 4 minutes video, youtube

Moreover, there's a lot CloudMining companies want you to investing your money with them. So them can get a lot profit and just giving your capital back in long time.

I'm not confusing about supply and demand in BTC trading, the one thing that i worry about is "Mining Reward".
On next 5 years, miners will get less profit. And because of that too, the transaction fee will increase. And BTC price will drop again.

WTH

[CoinHopper]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.   

It really depends on the demand. Bitcoin has a decreasing supply and a large demand. If there was a low demand, it'd barely be a hundred dollars.

[odolvlobo]

The halving is near, and as many of us know, it will slow the amount of coins "minted" each time the miners find a block. I understand the basic of supply and demand, and I also know that the lesser the supply is, the higher the price. But what if there is a less supply but also less demand on the other side? Would the price still be high as expected? Or will it be low because apparently there are no buyers on the other side of the market?

Confused here. Please help.    

It really depends on the demand. Bitcoin has a decreasing supply and a large demand. If there was a low demand, it'd barely be a hundred dollars.

The supply of bitcoins is not decreasing. It constantly increasing, currently at the rate of 3600 per day. After the halving next year, it will continue increasing, but at a rate of 1800 per day.

The answer to the original question is that as long as the positive shift in market demand continues to exceed the positive shift in market supply, the price will increase, otherwise it will decrease. Market supply and demand are influenced by many factors including adoption, hoarding, the money supply, the velocity of money, and the price itself.