I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming halving is already priced in, with the next ATH not occurring until the halving of 2024. Crypto never fails to catch one off guard though.
I think purely the speculation and people's assumptions that the block halving will lift the price will make them buy in, especially if the price is trending up for a month or two straight. People buy into that what goes up, and whatever the reason is the price is going up, people link it to the most obviously available event, which again comes down to the block halving.
People will always assume in this market, I believed, how many assumed that the price would even go below 5 digits again, when we touch ATH last year? This market is really based on speculation and if they see the price started to rise after the next halving, and guarantee that they will opt to buy in again, pushing the market price again.
Bitmain recently stated that it plans to deploy 200,000 miners, which is something they wouldn't consider if they believed the price would stay more or less around the $4000'ish level. It's obviously not a guarantee that the price will explode, but at least these entities put their money where their mouth is with the insane risks they expose themselves to.
Maybe Bitmain knows something that we don't know,
. Probably risking it, what do they have to lose? They have total monopoly of it, and at least a little risk might be worth in the next year or so.