Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — On-Chain Asset Profile
Bitcoin Cash trades at $218.67 with a $4.385B market cap and 20.04M of 21M coins circulating. Born from the 2017-08-01 Bitcoin hard fork, BCH chose 32MB blocks over Lightning and SegWit. This page covers the asset itself — economics, the chains it lives on, scene-by-scene usage, and the freeze, fork, and concentration risks that matter for cross-chain swap users.
Move BCH non-custodially across chains with market-maker bidding and automatic refund on failed routes — no KYC, no custody, settled on-chain.
About BCH
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) launched on 2017-08-01 as a hard fork of Bitcoin Core, splitting over a multi-year dispute about how to scale Bitcoin's payment layer. The BCH camp rejected SegWit and Lightning Network and instead raised the on-chain block size limit, originally from 1MB to 8MB and later to 32MB. That choice is the single most important fact about the asset: BCH is engineered to settle payments on Layer 1, where the rest of the Bitcoin family pushed throughput off-chain. The chain inherited Bitcoin's SHA-256 Proof-of-Work, the 21M hard cap, the four-year halving schedule, and the UTXO accounting model — but diverged on consensus rules, scripting opcodes, and difficulty adjustment.
Technically, BCH runs 600-second block times and reaches probabilistic finality around 3,600 seconds (six confirmations), identical to Bitcoin's mining cadence. Where it differs is throughput: typical sustained capacity sits near 30 transactions per second with a theoretical ceiling around 200 TPS, versus Bitcoin's 7 typical / 15 max. The chain uses the ASERT difficulty adjustment algorithm (introduced 2020) for smoother hash-rate response, an extended Bitcoin Cash Script opcode set, and the CashAddr format (bitcoincash:q-prefixed) to reduce address confusion with BTC. In May 2023 the CashTokens upgrade activated native fungible and non-fungible tokens directly on the BCH UTXO layer, without sidechains or wrapped representations.
Economically, BCH shares Bitcoin's 21-million coin hard cap. Circulating supply is 20,044,293.65 BCH against a 20,044,299.90 total, leaving roughly 956,000 coins still to be mined over the remaining halving epochs. Block reward followed Bitcoin's halving schedule — currently 3.125 BCH per block after the April 2024 halving — and miner revenue depends almost entirely on subsidy plus fees, since on-chain fees stay low by design. The all-time high of $3,785.82 was set on 2017-12-20 during the post-fork euphoria; the asset now trades 94.22% below that peak at $218.67, with 24-hour volume of $286,498,603 and a fully diluted valuation of $4,385,430,173 essentially identical to current market cap.
Real-world usage centers on peer-to-peer payments, remittances, and tipping — the original Bitcoin thesis that BCH was designed to preserve. Bitcoin.com, Kraken, Coinbase, and major regional exchanges across Latin America and Southeast Asia process BCH withdrawals natively. The chain sees moderate merchant adoption in Venezuela, the Philippines, and parts of Africa where low fees and fast confirmation matter more than smart-contract programmability. With CashTokens live, a small but growing DeFi and NFT ecosystem operates directly on Layer 1, distinct from the wrapped-BCH activity on EVM sidechains. For cross-chain swap users, BCH is mainly a settlement-layer asset: deep liquidity on centralized venues, predictable confirmation behavior, and no wrapped-asset trust assumptions when held on its native chain.
BCH multi-chain versions
Unlike USDT or wrapped BTC, Bitcoin Cash is overwhelmingly used in its native UTXO form on its own chain. Wrapped representations exist — primarily wBCH on EVM sidechains and on BSC — but they are a small fraction of supply and carry custodial bridge risk that the native asset does not. Understanding where BCH lives, and in what form, is essential before routing a cross-chain swap.
Key insights
- BCH native chain settles roughly 30 TPS typical and up to 200 TPS theoretical — about 4x to 13x Bitcoin's throughput — at a 600-second block time and 3,600-second six-confirmation finality.
- The CashTokens upgrade (2023-05-15) added native FT/NFT issuance to the BCH UTXO layer, meaning new on-chain assets do not require an EVM wrapper or sidechain to exist.
- BSV's 2018-11-15 chain split removed a significant fraction of early BCH community and hashpower; understanding that fork history matters when evaluating BCH's social and developer consensus.
- Wrapped BCH on EVM chains (e.g. wBCH, SmartBCH-bridged BCH) trades non-custodial-native BCH for EVM composability — every wrap introduces a bridge counterparty that the native chain does not.
- BCH is in the Coinbase 50 Index and is supported by Ledger, Trezor, Electron Cash, Bitcoin.com Wallet, and Trust Wallet — the same key-management surface as BTC, with CashAddr formatting to reduce cross-fork send errors.
Pick by use case
Peer-to-peer payments and remittances
BCH native (Layer 1)For sub-$10 transfers, merchant settlement, and cross-border remittances, native BCH is the canonical form. Confirmation arrives in roughly 600 seconds with fees that typically stay below a cent thanks to 32MB blocks. No bridge, no wrapping, no custodial intermediary — UTXOs settle directly on the chain that issued them.
CashTokens issuance and on-chain NFTs
BCH native (Layer 1)Since the May 2023 upgrade, fungible and non-fungible tokens issue directly on BCH UTXOs using extended Bitcoin Cash Script opcodes. This is a Layer 1 alternative to ERC-20 or SPL tokens — no EVM, no Move, no validator set beyond the BCH miners already securing the chain.
EVM DeFi exposure (wrapped BCH)
BSC / Ethereum (wBCH)Holders who want BCH-denominated exposure inside EVM lending markets, DEX liquidity pools, or yield protocols use wrapped BCH on BSC or Ethereum. This adds a custodial or smart-contract bridge counterparty; the trade-off is composability with the broader EVM stack at the cost of native chain finality guarantees.
Centralized exchange settlement
BCH native (Layer 1)Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Bitfinex, and Bitcoin.com process BCH deposits and withdrawals on the native chain. Six confirmations (3,600 seconds) is the industry standard for credit. For traders moving size, native-chain rails offer the deepest liquidity and the cleanest accounting — no wrapped variants involved.
Cross-chain swap to BTC, ETH, or stablecoins
Native BCH out, target chain inAllSwap routes BCH out from a user-controlled BCH address into any supported destination chain through market-maker bidding. The user signs once, receives a quote, and the route refunds automatically if any leg fails. No KYC, no custody of funds at the swap layer, and no need to pre-wrap BCH into an EVM representation before swapping.
BCH market data
Source: CoinGecko
Chains where BCH is live
BCH is available for cross-chain swap on the 1 chains below. Tap any chain to see every asset live on it.
1 CHAINS · Tap any logo to view that chain's details
Compliance & risk
BCH inherits Bitcoin's permissionless UTXO model — there is no issuer that can freeze a balance at the protocol layer, and no foundation with mint authority. The meaningful risks are at the social-consensus layer, the wrapped-asset layer, and the exchange layer, not in native BCH itself.
Fork and social-consensus risk
MediumBCH was itself born from a Bitcoin hard fork (2017-08-01) and later spawned the BSV chain split (2018-11-15), losing a large fraction of its early community in the process. Future contentious upgrades could split the chain again. Holders should track upgrade activation votes and node-operator signaling around scheduled hard-fork dates.
Long-tail price drawdown
HighBCH trades at $218.67, which is 94.22% below its 2017-12-20 all-time high of $3,785.82. Trailing performance is -27.56% over seven days, -52.49% over 30 days, and -43.52% over one year. This is structural underperformance versus BTC, not noise; size positions accordingly.
Wrapped BCH counterparty risk
MediumwBCH on BSC and other EVM chains depends on a custodian or bridge contract to hold the native BCH backing each wrapped unit. A custodian failure, multisig compromise, or bridge exploit affects only the wrapped representation, not native BCH — but holders of wBCH bear that risk in full. Native BCH on its own chain does not.
Exchange-level freeze and delisting risk
MediumWhile the BCH protocol has no freeze function, balances held on centralized exchanges remain subject to that venue's compliance and sanctions screening. Some regional exchanges have delisted BCH at various times. Self-custody on a hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor) or open-source wallet (Electron Cash) removes this surface.
Mining concentration and 51% economics
LowBCH shares SHA-256 with Bitcoin, meaning the same ASIC fleet can mine either chain. Because BCH hashrate is a small fraction of Bitcoin's, a rented or rerouted slice of BTC hashpower is in principle sufficient for a short-window 51% attack. The ASERT difficulty algorithm and six-confirmation settlement convention mitigate but do not eliminate this concern.
BCH FAQ
01What makes Bitcoin Cash different from Bitcoin at the protocol level?
Three concrete differences. First, block size: BCH allows up to 32MB blocks versus Bitcoin's ~1MB base / 4MB weight cap, giving roughly 30 TPS typical and 200 TPS theoretical versus Bitcoin's 7/15. Second, scripting: BCH re-enabled and extended Bitcoin Script opcodes (and added CashTokens in 2023 for native FT/NFT issuance), while Bitcoin layered SegWit and Taproot on top of a constrained script. Third, scaling philosophy: BCH scales on Layer 1; Bitcoin scales on Lightning and other Layer 2s. Same SHA-256 PoW, same 21M cap, same halving schedule — different design choices everywhere else.
02Is native BCH safer than wrapped BCH on EVM chains?
From a counterparty perspective, yes. Native BCH on its own chain has no issuer and no bridge — your private key controls the UTXO directly, secured by BCH miners. Wrapped BCH (wBCH on BSC, SmartBCH-bridged BCH) requires trusting either a custodian, a multisig federation, or a smart-contract bridge to honor the 1:1 backing. If the bridge fails, the wrapper depegs while native BCH is unaffected. Use the wrapped form only when you specifically need EVM DeFi composability, and size the position accordingly.
03Can my BCH be frozen or blacklisted?
Not at the protocol layer. BCH is permissionless: there is no issuer, no admin key, and no on-chain function that lets any party freeze a UTXO once it's confirmed. The freeze risk is exclusively at the edge — on centralized exchanges, in regulated custodian accounts, or on wrapped-asset bridges where an off-chain entity controls the backing. Holding BCH non-custodially on a hardware wallet or an open-source wallet like Electron Cash removes that surface entirely.
04Why is BCH 94% below its all-time high?
The $3,785.82 ATH was set on 2017-12-20, in the immediate post-fork window when speculative demand and the original Bitcoin community split between BCH and BTC. Two structural pressures followed: the 2018-11-15 BSV chain split fragmented community and hashrate, and the broader market consolidated payment-coin narratives into Bitcoin while migrating speculative flow toward smart-contract chains. At $218.67 today, BCH sits at -27.56% over 7 days, -52.49% over 30 days, and -43.52% year-on-year — a trend, not noise. Size positions with that drawdown profile in mind.
05Does BCH support smart contracts and tokens like Ethereum?
Partially, and natively as of the May 2023 CashTokens upgrade. BCH supports a UTXO-based scripting system with extended opcodes that allows covenants, simple smart contracts, and now native fungible and non-fungible tokens directly on Layer 1 — no EVM, no sidechain required. It is not a general-purpose smart-contract platform in the Ethereum or Solana sense; complex DeFi composability still routes through wrapped BCH on EVM chains. For straightforward token issuance, escrow scripts, and on-chain NFTs, the native BCH layer is now sufficient.