Nicole WillingThe price of bitcoin cash (BCH) has slid in the past week after spiking to a three-month high, although it remains well above the year’s lows.
What is bitcoin cash and how does it differ from bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin gold (BTG)? Is the recent dip an opportunity to buy into the cryptocurrency before it resumes its upward trend, or is there potential for the price to fall?
In this article, we look at the effect of the latest bitcoin cash news on the price and the long-term outlook for the coin.
Bitcoin cash targets high transaction volumes
Bitcoin cash is a hard fork, or spinoff, from the Bitcoin blockchain that occurred on 1 August 2017. The split came as the Bitcoin community could not reach consensus on a proposal to increase the network capacity to allow for more transactions.
Anyone who held bitcoin at the time received bitcoin cash, which has a higher maximum block size. The protocol initially increased the block size from 1MB to 8MB, and it now supports blocks of up to 32MB. The developers are researching the possibility of “massive future increases”. The higher block size enables bitcoin cash to process far more transactions per second while keeping fees low – a solution to the payment delays and high fees that some bitcoin users experienced.
Bitcoin cash has a different aim than bitcoin gold, launched in October 2017, which focuses on restoring decentralised mining after it became dominated by large mining farms. BCH aims to be peer-to-peer electronic cash – simple and fast to use, with low fees for sending money globally. The low fees enable micro-transactions, like tipping content creators and rewarding app users small amounts of money.
There was a hard fork of bitcoin cash in November 2018, as disagreements continued in the community about the maximum block size for transactions, resulting in the creation of bitcoin SV (BSV). The block size limit is unbounded and can scale in response to the market. In August, the maximum block size quickly increased from 1GB blocks to a 2GB block processed on 18 August – claimed to be the largest block that’s been mined on a public blockchain so far.
Like bitcoin, the supply of bitcoin cash is capped at 21 million coins. There are currently 18.8 million coins in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap. The fixed supply is intended to limit inflation and make bitcoin cash a sound store of value. With the price of $555.18 on 20 September, bitcoin cash has a market capitalisation of around $10.5bn, ranking it the 17th largest cryptocurrency.
BCH price reaches three-month high
![BCH price chart]](files/imgs/articles/750xx/-infographics-BCH-forecast_1_MCT-715.png "BCH price chart")
The bitcoin cash price climbed to an intraday high of $801.49 on 6 September, its highest level since late May, when cryptocurrencies retreated from their sharp rally. While bitcoin reached an all-time high above $64,000 in April, BCH peaked at $1,635.15 on 16 May, well below its record high of $4,355.62 of December 2017 during the previous cryptocurrency bull run.
The price had retreated to an intraday low of $596.71 by 13 September, although it ticked higher to $654.27 on 16 September after the chief executive officer of US cinema chain AMC (AMC) said that the company would accept bitcoin cash along with bitcoin, ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC) as payment for online tickets and concessions by the end of the year.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts: you likely know @AMCTheatres has announced we will accept Bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021. I can confirm today that when we do so, we also expect that we similarly will accept Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. pic.twitter.com/uKcFyQotoJ
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 16, 2021
Adoption of bitcoin cash has been increasing, with digital payments company PayPal (PYPL) announcing on 23 August the rollout of a new service in the UK allowing customers to buy, hold and sell bitcoin cash along with bitcoin, ether and litecoin via the PayPal website or the mobile app. The move expands the company’s cryptocurrency service offering outside of the US.
On 10 September, cryptocurrency investment company Greyscale announced that it has registered the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), along with trusts for ethereum classic (ETC) and litecoin, joining its existing bitcoin, ethereum and Digital Large Cap trusts. It had announced plans to form the new trusts in April.
The company said:
What do forecasting sites predict for the direction of the bitcoin cash future price? Is there potential for the coin to return to its previous highs?
Bitcoin cash price predictions 2021-2025: what’s next for the coin?
Short-term sentiment for BCH has been bearish, with the price around $559.90 at the time of writing (20 September), according to CoinCodex. There were 23 technical analysis indicators giving bearish signals, compared with eight bullish signals. The 3- to 200-day simple (SMAs) and exponential moving averages (EMAs) were showing sell signals, while the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and the relative strength index (RSI) were neutral.
In the meantime, the bitcoin cash (BCH/USD) forecast from Wallet Investor is bullish, predicting that the average price will double to $1,238.85 by the end of 2021, then rise to $1,515.49 by the end of 2022 and reach $2,318.25 by the end of 2025.
![One-year BCH price forecast]](files/imgs/articles/750xx/-infographics-BCH-forecast_2_MCT-715-1-_0.png "One-year BCH price forecast]")
The BCH price prediction from DigitalCoin projects that the price will average $974.11 in 2022, up from $794.33 in 2021, then continue rising to an average of $1,579.83 in 2025 and $2,497.65 in 2028.
The forecast for bitcoin cash from Price Prediction is the most bullish, suggesting the coin could climb from an average of $661.35 in 2021 to $2,863.03 in 2025 and soar to an average price of $19,837.91 by 2030.
It’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts and online forecasting sites can get their predictions wrong.
We recommend that you always do your own research, and consider the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decisions. And never invest more than you can afford to lose.
How to buy BCH coins in 2021
Are you looking to trade bitcoin cash? You can buy BCH on cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Huobi Global and OKEx. You can then withdraw the coins to a secure software or hardware wallet for safekeeping.
Alternatively, you can trade BCH using contracts for difference (CFDs) on Capital. CFD trading allows you to speculate on the direction of a cryptocurrency price without having to buy the actual coin or worry about storing it in a wallet.
Trading CFDs offers the opportunity to try to benefit from both bullish and bearish price action. If you expect the BCH price to rise, you can open a long position. If you think it will fall, you can open a short position, still making a profit if the price moves lower.
With Capital.com, you can trade BCH not only against the US dollar, but also against bitcoin.
As a leveraged product, CFDs are designed to maximise gains, which can be large on volatile products such as cryptocurrencies. However, you should be aware that using leverage also increases the size of the loss if the price moves against your position.
Make sure you understand how CFDs work and do your own research before you begin, and never invest money you cannot afford to lose. Learn more about cryptocurrency CFDs with our comprehensive guide. Create an account on Capital.com to stay on top of the latest BCH coin news, price analysis and forecasts, to help inform your trading decisions.
Edited by Valerie Medleva
