Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency created on August 1, 2017 through a hard fork of Bitcoin. The split resulted from years of conflict over how Bitcoin should scale — the “Blocksize War.” BCH’s founding thesis: Bitcoin should scale via larger blocks on-chain to function as cheap peer-to-peer cash, not via second-layer solutions like Lightning. Roger Ver became its most prominent advocate and vocal opponent on this.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | BCH |
| Price | $425.83 |
| Market Cap | $8.52B |
| 24h Change | +0.2% |
| Circulating Supply | 20.02M BCH |
| Max Supply | 21.00M BCH |
| All-Time High | $3,785.82 |
The Fork
August 1, 2017 is “Bitcoin Cash launch day.” The split was triggered by irreconcilable disagreement:
Bitcoin Core position: Scale via SegWit and second-layer networks (Lightning). Keep base layer conservative and decentralized small blocks.
Bitcoin Cash position: Increase block size directly to 8MB. More transactions per block = lower fees = peer-to-peer cash use case.
At block 478,558, Bitcoin Cash’s chain diverged from Bitcoin. Anyone holding Bitcoin at that time received an equal amount of BCH — “replay protection” codes separated the two chains going forward.
Technical Differences from Bitcoin
| Feature | Bitcoin (BTC) | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) |
|---|---|---|
| Max block size | ~4MB (SegWit weight) | 32MB |
| SegWit | Yes | No |
| Transaction throughput | ~7 TPS | ~100+ TPS |
| Average fee | Varies ($1–$60+) | Consistently <$0.01 |
| Lightning Network | Yes | No |
| Schnorr signatures | Yes (Taproot) | Yes (earlier than BTC) |
| CashAddr format | No | Yes (different address format) |
History of BCH
- August 1, 2017 — Hard fork from Bitcoin at block 478,558. Initial 8MB block limit.
- November 2018 — BCH itself splits: Bitcoin Cash ABC (Amaury Séchet’s roadmap) vs. Bitcoin SV (Craig Wright / Calvin Ayre). BCH ABC wins the hash war; Bitcoin SV forks off as BSV.
- 2020 — Fork again: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) vs. Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN). The “Infrastructure Funding Plan” (miner tax) controversy. BCHN wins in another hash war; IFP is abandoned.
- 2021-present — BCH adoption stagnates relative to Bitcoin and Ethereum. SmartBCH (EVM-compatible sidechain) launches but gains limited traction.
Use Case Argument
BCH’s value proposition: ultra-low fees (consistently <$0.01) make it practical for everyday small transactions — tipping, remittances, coffee purchases — that are uneconomical on Bitcoin during peak fee periods.
Reality check: Despite lower fees, BCH has seen limited real-world merchant adoption. Bitcoin itself dominates crypto payments via Lightning, and stablecoins dominate the use cases BCH targeted. BCH’s market cap fell from roughly parity with Bitcoin at the fork to <1% of Bitcoin's capitalization by 2024.
Community
BCH’s community includes committed peer-to-peer cash advocates, developers building on-chain scaling solutions, and merchants in developing markets. Roger Ver founded Bitcoin.com and promoted BCH heavily. The community uses tools like Cashtab wallet, Electron Cash, and noise.cash for payments.
Social Media Sentiment
Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin communities have a deeply antagonistic relationship. Bitcoin maximalists dismiss BCH as a “scam fork.” BCH proponents argue Bitcoin has betrayed its original peer-to-peer cash use case. Roger Ver’s arrest in 2024 on tax fraud charges added controversy to the BCH ecosystem’s most prominent figure. On r/btc (the original pro-BCH subreddit, now largely inactive relative to peak) and on crypto Twitter, BCH sentiment has steadily declined in influence as the project failed to gain mainstream traction.
Last updated: 2026-04
Related Terms
Research
- Bier, J. (2021). The Blocksize War: The Battle Over Who Controls Bitcoin’s Protocol Rules. Self-published.
- Bitcoin Cash Whitepaper. (2017). Bitcoin Cash: Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash. bitcoincash.org.