What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency that was created in 2017 by splitting from Bitcoin (BTC). Its main goal is to solve Bitcoin’s scalability issues and offer faster and cheaper transactions. In line with this goal, it has expanded the network’s transaction capacity by increasing the block size from 8 MB to 32 MB today.

Like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash is also a decentralized and peer-to-peer digital cash system; it allows direct money transfers without the need for a bank or intermediary.

Table of Contents

Technology, Functioning, and How It Works

Bitcoin Cash uses the basic operational principles of Bitcoin but with a significant difference: transactions are recorded on a public and transparent ledger called the blockchain. Transactions are verified by miners and added to blocks.

Large Block Sizes: BCH supports significantly more transactions per second by using larger block sizes compared to Bitcoin. This makes BCH more preferable, especially for small and daily payments. By processing more transactions simultaneously, it offers fast and cheap payments.
Decentralized Network: Enables bankless, direct user-to-user transfers.
Proof-of-Work (PoW): Ensures network security. Miners validate transactions by solving complex mathematical problems and earn new BCH tokens. This is also the mechanism for generating new BCH.
Smart Contract Potential: The BCH ecosystem has moved towards integrating more flexible smart contract functions. Through sidechain solutions like SmartBCH, it offers potential for DeFi and DApps (Decentralized Applications).

Tokenomics (Token Economy)

Bitcoin Cash’s supply and distribution model shares similar features with Bitcoin:

Total Supply: 21 million BCH (same as Bitcoin).
Circulating Supply: Approximately 19.88 million BCH (as of 2025).
Block Reward: Initially, the reward per block was 50 BCH. This reward halves every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years). The 2024 reward is approximately 3.125 BCH.
Mining and Supply Cap: BCH miners earn block rewards and transaction fees for verifying blocks. Since the total supply is capped at 21 million, new BCH mining will end around the year 2140.

Roadmap and Development

Bitcoin Cash is developed not by a centralized institution but by an open-source developer community and its users.
Scalability: BCH focuses on supporting more transactions by increasing block size and reducing transaction time.
Privacy: The Bitcoin Cash community is working on enhancing privacy features, though it is not as high a priority as with Bitcoin.
Fast Payment Protocols: BCH does not use the Lightning Network as widely as BTC, but it is working on its own fast payment protocols.
Smart Contracts: The BCH ecosystem has moved towards integrating more flexible smart contract functions compared to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Historical Development Timeline

The journey of Bitcoin Cash has been shaped by preserving the core vision of Bitcoin but with different scalability solutions. Here are BCH’s major milestones:

2017: The Birth of Bitcoin Cash On August 1, 2017, it emerged as a hard fork from the original Bitcoin network due to dissatisfaction with scalability limitations.

BCH’s main goal was to support more transactions per second by focusing on larger block sizes (8 MB).

2018-2019: Technical Expansion

BCH further increased the block size to 32 MB.
Introduced technical innovations such as Schnorr signatures (activated in 2020).
During this period, internal debates occurred regarding central leadership and development directions.

2020: Split Between BCH and BCHA

In November 2020, the network experienced another split, creating Bitcoin Cash ABC ($BCHA).
The majority of the community continued to support BCH (led by Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin Cash Node), allowing BCH to maintain its original path without a developer tax in the protocol.

2021-2022: Stable Infrastructure

During this period, BCH continued to focus on stability, affordable, and fast transactions.
The network concentrated on real-life usage through initiatives like Paytaca and Bitcoin.com Wallet, reinforcing its vision of being digital cash.

Current Status (2023-2025): Focus on Usability and CashTokens

It was increasingly integrated into mobile wallets and Point-of-Sale (PoS) solutions, especially in developing markets such as the Philippines, Nigeria, and South America.
Partnerships began to be established with local merchants and payment systems, signaling real adoption.
2024:
CashTokens were launched in May 2023. This major upgrade enabled smart contracts, tokens, dApps, and DeFi functions on the BCH network without sacrificing speed or low cost.

Investors and Notable Partnerships

The development of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ecosystem is shaped by a decentralized community and adoption-focused strategies beyond traditional corporate structures.

Individual and Institutional Investors’ Approach

Bitcoin Cash has been adopted globally by individual investors. Its price movements, liquidity, and market cap continue to attract individual investors.

Institutional Adoption: Traditional financial institutions or large companies, rather than making large-scale direct investments in BCH (such as direct purchases like MicroStrategy’s with Bitcoin), generally provide indirect support by making BCH accessible through crypto exchanges and platforms. BCH’s promise of “cheaper and faster transactions” may attract some institutions for payment integrations or brokerage services.

Liquidity Providers: Major crypto exchanges, brokerage services, and OTC (over-the-counter) desks provide significant liquidity for BCH, making it easier for investors to buy and sell. These platforms ensure BCH’s presence and accessibility in the market.

Key Projects and Trading Platforms in the BCH Ecosystem

The key projects and trading platforms that support BCH’s “digital cash” vision and form the foundation of the ecosystem include:

Notable Projects and Use Cases

CashTokens (cashtokens.org): A next-generation system on Bitcoin Cash that allows the creation and management of digital assets (tokens). This technology enables the development of various decentralized applications such as crowdfunding, trading protocols, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and cross-chain bridges.
SmartBCH: A sidechain solution that opens the BCH ecosystem to the world of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Decentralized Applications (DApps). Thanks to Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, Ethereum-based smart contracts can run on BCH in a fast and low-cost manner.
Privacy Tools: BCH offers innovative tools such as CashShuffle and CashFusion to enhance users’ transaction privacy. These tools help provide a more anonymous experience by mixing transaction histories.

Popular Wallets and Payment Processors

BCH’s accessibility and suitability for everyday use are supported by a wide network:

Wide Wallet Support:
Users can securely store and manage their BCH assets through various software and hardware wallets such as Electron Cash, Bitcoin.com Wallet, Ledger, Trezor, Exodus, and many more.

Payment Processors and Commercial Acceptance:
BCH is accepted as a payment method in various online and physical stores through leading crypto payment processors like BitPay and CoinPayments. These integrations facilitate the “real-world” use of BCH.

Global Exchanges and Trading Platforms

Bitcoin Cash has high liquidity on a global scale and is listed on many major cryptocurrency exchanges:

International Major Exchanges: BCH can be traded on many leading platforms such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, HTX (Huobi), OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, Bitget, and many more.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Exchanges: P2P platforms such as Bisq and Hodl Hodl offer users more flexible and decentralized trading options by enabling direct BCH trading with each other.

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