Bitcoin Cash
About Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a decentralized cryptocurrency created in 2017 through a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. It has a larger block size than Bitcoin, allowing for faster and cheaper transactions. Bitcoin Cash can be used as a means of exchange and store of value and is gaining acceptance among merchants and businesses worldwide. It was created by a group of developers and miners who believed that Bitcoin needed modifications to address scalability issues. The main developer team was initially called "Bitcoin ABC," but development has since become more decentralized.
BCH was officially launched in August 2017 and was distributed to bitcoin holders at a ratio of 1:1, meaning each bitcoin holder was entitled to receive one BCH token for each bitcoin they held.
Because Bitcoin Cash shared the same blockchain as Bitcoin until the hard fork (a major change to a network’s protocol), the two cryptocurrencies had similar characteristics. As with bitcoin, the total supply of BCH is capped at 21 million. However, they vary in major ways. For example, Bitcoin Cash can support 25,000 transactions per block, compared with Bitcoin’s 1,000 to 1,500 transactions per block.
In December 2017, BCH price hit an all-time high of $4,355.62, but it lost 80% of its value over the next six months as the wider crypto market experienced a prolonged bear market.
BCH prices remained under $600 for more than two years until January 2021 when a new bullish cycle began. The token for the forked bitcoin project managed to rise 410% to a peak of $1,636 in May 2021 – the highest price seen in about three years. By the end of June 2021, however, BCH’s price fell 75% to $40.