Bitcoin Cash Price Chart (BCH)

What is Bitcoin Cash?

In 2017, Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, created a project-fork cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is known as an altcoin, and its name encompasses both Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.

Nakamoto created Bitcoin Cash after many Bitcoin users raised the point that Bitcoin's blocks were too small. They didn't process enough transactions, which meant transactions got delayed, and the wait for processing became longer over time. With Bitcoin Cash, the number of transactions processed per block became a maximum of 25,000, as opposed to Bitcoin's average of up to 1,500.

The Bitcoin cash supply limit stands at 21 million, and it uses much of the same mechanisms and shares similar usage potential as Bitcoin—from investing to purchasing physical objects. It has low transaction fees, and it's a decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. In other words, no one owns it, and trading happens between members.

You can buy Bitcoin Cash with credit, debit, cash, bank transfer, or other forms of cryptocurrency on different market platforms. You can also mine Bitcoin Cash by solving mathematical equations for block rewards.

What is the Difference Between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash?

Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are very similar, especially since Bitcoin Cash is essentially the same thing, but capable of performing more transactions. While Bitcoin takes ten minutes to process a single transaction with 1MB blocks, Bitcoin Cash uses 8MB blocks to process four times faster.

Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin with the intent of faster processing speeds, but it comes with other advantages like low processing fees. Because Bitcoin Cash also implements quick solutions to problems, it works better for regular use.

At the same time, because Bitcoin Cash is newer than Bitcoin, investors don't feel as comfortable investing in it. Bitcoin Cash also allows for less profit for miners, which has led to slower mining and adoption rates.

Other cryptocurrencies have yet to touch Bitcoin. Why? It's the original crypto. The market's trading system was built for Bitcoin, so naturally, it's the most popular and most widely used cryptocurrency in existence. People who already invest in Bitcoin are often loyalty to it.

You can trade BTC on more trading platforms than BCH, making its use more versatile. More brick and mortar shops accept it as payment than BCH, and BTC is still a more desirable trade since the value and market cap are higher.

What was Bitcoin Cash’s Starting Price?

The Bitcoin Cash starting price began at $240 in August 2017. Compare that to Bitcoin's price of $2,700 at the time.

While you can currently mine Bitcoin Cash at 12.5 BCH per block, that's not how it started. Initially, block rewards for each solved equation stood at 50 BCH per block. However, because there can only ever be 21 million BCH circulating at a time, the rewards are halved at intervals of 210,000 blocks.

That means that after the first 210,000 blocks, the block rewards were cut in half to create a 25 BCH block reward. Since the rewards have halved twice now, the block reward is 12.5 BCH. After the next halving, they'll go down to 6.25 BCH.

While Bitcoin Cash prices have risen and fallen since release, BCH has enjoyed slow but steady upward price action. The 2020 prediction for Bitcoin Cash says the coin may reach $800 by the end of the year.

Over the next five years, BCH may reach a value of nearly $6,000. The thing to remember about BCH is that because it's a hard fork of Bitcoin, it's not in danger of becoming irrelevant. The two are connected, and Bitcoin needs its altcoins to thrive.

What Happened to the Bitcoin Cash Price After Hard Fork?

Bitcoin Cash has had its share of ups and downs since it forked from Bitcoin. After the hard fork, its price began to climb—at first. It went from its initial price of $240 per BCH to $643 in April 2018 and rising over $1,000 from there within the month.

However, a year later, the price had dropped to $293—shockingly close to its starting price. What happened?

In August 2018, Bitcoin Cash itself forked, creating Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV. The former is recognized as BCH, but this fork caused the market price of Bitcoin Cash to drop by 83 percent.

Currently, the price of BCH is $393.71. That number is consistent with Bitcoin Cash's value since Q3 in 2019, hovering around $400. In September, it even plummeted below its initial $240 price before coming back up.

Most Bitcoin Cash prediction charts suggest that it will continue to go up in the near future, despite its rocky history. Because it is still attached to Bitcoin, its price may drop, but it will not die out.

Is BCH Better than BTC?

The short answer to this question is no. Bitcoin is the most well-known and widely used cryptocurrency in existence. As the first cryptocurrency and the one that created the crypto trading market, it's hard to beat—especially by an altcoin created from it.

However, while BCH may not be better than BTC, it does have its advantages. It has shorter transaction times, lower transaction fees, and better adaptability than BTC.

BCH has the potential for more usability and flexibility. However, because investors and traders are still so focused on BTC, the demand for it hasn't reached a high enough level to create these opportunities.

Bitcoin still has more versatility, regardless of its offshoot's potential. However, it's slower, and its internal support team doesn't always agree on the best solutions for scalability problems. That makes progress even slower than its transaction time.

Still, if Bitcoin controls the trading and investing markets, it can afford to take its time. Its market cap is higher than any other cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin Cash still lags behind its parent crypto.

With a lower mining profit and Bitcoin's loyal following, Bitcoin Cash has a lot of catching up to do before it's ready to take the crypto investment world by storm.