Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Price Today & Live Chart

What is BitcoinCash?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a peer-to-peer electronic cash cryptocurrency that emerged from a contentious hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain on August 1, 2017, at block 478,559. The fork was the culmination of a multi-year civil war within the Bitcoin community known as the 'block size wars,' in which one faction wanted to scale Bitcoin on-chain by increasing the block size, while another preferred keeping blocks small and scaling through second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network. BCH proponents, including early adopter Roger Ver, mining pool operator Jihan Wu of Bitmain, and developer Amaury Séchet who led the original Bitcoin ABC implementation, believed Bitcoin's utility as everyday electronic cash was being undermined by high fees and slow confirmations during network congestion.

At launch, BCH increased the block size from Bitcoin's 1 MB to 8 MB, and subsequent upgrades pushed it to 32 MB, enabling the network to process significantly more transactions per block at a fraction of BTC's fees. BCH preserves Bitcoin's core design: a 21 million coin hard cap, SHA-256 Proof of Work mining, and halving events every 210,000 blocks. The most recent halving occurred in April 2024, reducing the block subsidy to 3.125 BCH per block.

The Bitcoin Cash ecosystem has experienced significant turbulence. In November 2018, BCH itself underwent a contentious fork, splitting into Bitcoin Cash (BCH, led by Bitcoin ABC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV, championed by Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre), who wanted much larger blocks. A further split in November 2020 produced Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) after a dispute over a developer-funding 'Infrastructure Funding Proposal,' with BCHN becoming the dominant implementation. Despite these controversies, BCH retained the majority hashrate and market share among the forks.

Today the ecosystem is built around several full-node implementations including Bitcoin Cash Node, BCHD, and Knuth. Notable technical upgrades include CashAddr address formatting, Schnorr signatures, and the May 2023 activation of CashTokens, which introduced native fungible and non-fungible token support at the protocol level, allowing stablecoins, DeFi primitives, and NFTs to run directly on BCH. The 2024 upgrade introduced Adaptive Blocksize Limit Algorithm (ABLA), which dynamically adjusts block size based on demand.

BCH sees real merchant adoption through processors like BitPay, and earned early visibility through integration with payment processor CoinPayments and BCH-focused wallets such as Bitcoin.com Wallet and Electron Cash. The cryptocurrency remains listed on virtually every major exchange including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, and futures products are available on CME-adjacent markets and offshore derivatives platforms. Controversies have also shaped public perception: Roger Ver, once nicknamed 'Bitcoin Jesus,' was arrested in 2024 on US tax-related charges, and the Bitcoin.com domain's promotion of BCH over BTC remains a long-running source of debate between the two communities. Despite its turbulent history and a market cap well below its 2017 peak, Bitcoin Cash continues to attract users who prioritize cheap, fast on-chain transactions and an unapologetic 'electronic cash' philosophy.

Key Features of BitcoinCash

• Large 32 MB Blocks: BCH supports blocks up to 32 MB—32 times larger than Bitcoin's 1 MB limit—allowing thousands of transactions per block. This high on-chain throughput keeps fees low even during periods of heavy network activity.
• Sub-Cent Transaction Fees: Typical BCH transaction fees are fractions of a cent, making it economically viable for micropayments, tipping, and remittances. This sharply contrasts with BTC fees that can spike to $10+ during congestion.
• CashTokens Protocol: Activated in May 2023, CashTokens enables native fungible and non-fungible tokens directly on the BCH base layer without wrapped contracts. Developers can build stablecoins, DeFi primitives, and NFTs using the UTXO model and covenants.
• Adaptive Block Size: The 2024 ABLA upgrade automatically scales the effective block size ceiling based on real network demand. This removes the need for contentious hard forks to raise throughput and allows BCH to grow organically with usage.
• Schnorr Signatures: BCH activated Schnorr signatures in 2019, enabling smaller signatures, better privacy, and efficient multi-signature schemes. This reduces on-chain footprint and opens the door to advanced scripting primitives.
• Merchant-Ready Payments: Zero-confirmation transactions and near-instant finality make BCH practical at point-of-sale. Integrations with BitPay and dedicated wallets like Bitcoin.com Wallet and Electron Cash give merchants and customers a smooth checkout experience.

BitcoinCash Use Cases

• Cross-Border Remittances: Workers sending money internationally can use BCH to avoid the 5–10% fees charged by services like Western Union. A $200 transfer costs pennies and settles in minutes rather than days.
• Retail and Online Payments: Merchants accept BCH through payment processors like BitPay, with instant settlement to fiat if desired. The low fees make it practical for transactions as small as a cup of coffee, where BTC or card fees would be prohibitive.
• Micropayments and Tipping: Content creators, streamers, and open-source developers receive BCH tips of a few cents without fees eating the value. Platforms integrated with BCH allow viewers to send micro-rewards in real time during livestreams or on social posts.
• Stablecoin Issuance via CashTokens: Issuers can mint dollar-pegged stablecoins natively on BCH using the CashTokens protocol, avoiding expensive Ethereum gas. This opens emerging-market use cases where users need dollar exposure but cannot afford high network fees.
• Inflation Hedge in Unstable Economies: In countries with hyperinflating currencies, BCH offers a capped-supply asset with easy cash-like spending. Users can hold savings outside the banking system and still pay locally for goods and services via QR code.
• Mining with SHA-256 Hardware: Owners of Bitcoin ASICs (Antminer S19, Whatsminer M30, etc.) can point hashrate at BCH when profitability favors it. The shared algorithm lets miners arbitrage between BTC and BCH without buying new equipment.

BitcoinCash Tokenomics

Total Supply

Bitcoin Cash has a hard-capped maximum supply of 21,000,000 BCH, identical to Bitcoin. No additional coins can ever be minted beyond this ceiling, which is enforced by the network's consensus rules.

Circulating

Because BCH forked from Bitcoin at block 478,559, every BTC holder at that time received an equivalent BCH balance. Circulating supply closely tracks BTC's and is currently around 19.7+ million BCH. Dynamic — see CoinGecko for live figures.

Utility

BCH is used primarily as peer-to-peer electronic cash: paying merchants, sending remittances, tipping, and serving as the gas token for CashTokens-based assets. It also functions as a speculative store of value and a mining reward for SHA-256 miners.

Emission

New BCH is issued as block rewards every ~10 minutes, with rewards halving every 210,000 blocks (~4 years). The April 2024 halving cut the subsidy to 3.125 BCH per block, and the next halving near 2028 will reduce it to 1.5625 BCH before emissions eventually approach zero around 2140.

How to Buy BitcoinCash

1. 1

   1. Create a Binance account

   Visit binance.com and click 'Register' to sign up with an email or phone number. Complete identity verification (KYC) by uploading a government-issued ID and a selfie through the 'Identification' panel, which is required to unlock spot trading and higher withdrawal limits.

2. 2

   2. Deposit funds

   Go to 'Wallet' → 'Fiat and Spot' → 'Deposit' and choose either fiat (bank transfer, SEPA, card) or a crypto like USDT or BTC. For the cheapest route, transfer USDT on a low-fee network such as BEP20 or TRC20 from another exchange or wallet.

3. 3

   3. Navigate to the BCH trading pair

   Click 'Trade' → 'Spot' and search for 'BCH' in the markets panel. Select the BCH/USDT pair for the deepest liquidity, or use BCH/BTC and BCH/EUR if you funded with those assets.

4. 4

   4. Place your buy order

   Choose 'Market' to buy instantly at the current price, or 'Limit' to set a target entry. Enter the amount of BCH or the USDT value you want to spend—Binance's minimum order size is typically around $5 equivalent—then click the green 'Buy BCH' button to execute.

5. 5

   5. Withdraw to self-custody

   For long-term holding, go to 'Wallet' → 'Withdraw', select BCH, paste your external wallet address (Electron Cash, Bitcoin.com Wallet, or a hardware wallet like Ledger), and confirm. Always send a small test amount first, and double-check that the address is a BCH CashAddr address, not a BTC address.

BitcoinCash Historical Performance

BCH launched at approximately $240 after the Bitcoin fork in August 2017, quickly surging to $4,355 in December 2017. After the 2018 crash and the BCH/BSV fork in November 2018, it traded as low as $77. BCH has maintained its position as a top cryptocurrency, with renewed interest driven by its use case for low-cost payments.

Frequently Asked Questions