Bitcoin Cash price and where to buy BCH

What is Bitcoin Cash?

Bitcoin Cash is a fork of Bitcoin, created when part of the Bitcoin community wanted bigger blocks so more payments would fit in each one and fees would stay low. It kept the rest of Bitcoin’s design: SHA-256 proof of work, a block about every 10 minutes, a 21 million coin cap, and a block reward that halves every 210,000 blocks. The reward is currently 3.125 BCH.

Bitcoin Cash blocks can be many times larger than Bitcoin’s. Bitcoin kept small blocks and moved cheap payments to other layers instead. Both chains share history up to the split.

How to buy Bitcoin Cash, step by step

1. Pick an exchange. Every exchange we track lists BCH. Compare fees, funding options and whether it serves your country in our exchange reviews.
2. Create and verify your account. Regulated exchanges ask for identity documents before you can deposit fiat.
3. Fund the account. A bank transfer or a stablecoin deposit usually costs far less than a card payment.
4. Buy BCH. Use the BCH/USDT or BCH/USD market, and check the cheapest venue in the table above first.
5. Decide where to keep it. On the exchange is simplest, but the exchange then holds your coins. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin are different networks with similar-looking addresses; sending BCH to a Bitcoin address, or the reverse, can lose the coins, so check the network every time.

Where to buy Bitcoin Cash at the best price

Every exchange we track lists BCH, and the cheapest one right now is marked in the table above. On Bitcoin Cash that column is worth reading: the gap between venues is wider than on any other large coin we measure.

• The price on that venue. Each row shows the gap to our composite.
• The trading fee. Our fee comparison lists spot fees side by side.
• How you fund the account. A bank transfer or stablecoin deposit is usually far cheaper than a card payment.

Why the Bitcoin Cash price differs between exchanges

In our minute-by-minute measurement the gap between the highest and lowest venue averaged about 0.13 percent, the widest of any large asset we track. Bitcoin averaged about 0.025 percent. BCH’s gap went above half a percent in about 15 minutes per thousand and reached about 6.3 percent at its widest.

Unusually, BCH’s volume is not concentrated: no single venue carries even two fifths of the BCH spot volume we track. The volume is split across several mid-sized books, which fits the wide gap we measure. The spread figure at the top of this page is the live measurement; our guide on why crypto prices differ between exchanges explains the mechanism.

What moves the Bitcoin Cash price

Its link to Bitcoin is weaker than you might expect from the name: in our hourly composite the correlation was only about 0.47, and its moves were nearly three times the size of Bitcoin’s. BCH often moves on its own. The funding rates on this page show whether traders are paying to be long or short right now.

Pros and cons of Bitcoin Cash

Pros

• Larger blocks keep network fees low.
• Bitcoin’s 21 million cap and halving schedule.
• Listed on every exchange we track.

Cons

• The widest price gap between exchanges of any large coin we track, up to about 6.3 percent.
• Its hourly moves were nearly three times Bitcoin’s in our data.
• It trades far below its all-time high of about $3,786.

Bitcoin Cash’s highest price

Bitcoin Cash’s all-time high is about $3,786 on volume-weighted data. At the same peak a single exchange printed $9,500, more than twice the market. It is the clearest example we know of why one venue’s price is not the price. The BCH to USD converter applies our live composite to any amount.