What Is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)? Halvings, Spikes and How It Trades

What is Bitcoin Cash? It is a proof-of-work coin that split from Bitcoin on 1 August 2017, with the same 21 million cap, a 10-minute block target and a halving every 210,000 blocks. For a trader the working fact is how it moves: over the 90 days to 20 October 2026 BCH's average daily range was 5.82%, 2.1 times Bitcoin's 2.73%, and two single days (21 August and 22 September) gained more than 29% each.

Every number below is computed from dated data or taken from a source we fetched on 21 October 2026.

What is Bitcoin Cash and how does it work

The Bitcoin Cash Node README, the project's reference client, describes it as "a digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world", and says it became a separate currency from Bitcoin Core's version when the two split on 1 August 2017. We read the consensus rules in its source (checked 21 October 2026):

• Block time: the target spacing is 10 minutes.
• Difficulty: it adjusts with the ASERT algorithm, with a half-life of two days. Blocks that run behind schedule cut difficulty quickly, and blocks that run ahead raise it.
• Cap: MAX_MONEY is 21,000,000 coins.
• Halving: the subsidy starts at 50 coins and is cut in half every 210,000 blocks.

CoinGecko files BCH under "Bitcoin Fork", "Proof of Work (PoW)", "Layer 1 (L1)" and "Smart Contract Platform". In the 24 hours before we checked, Blockchair counted 18,704 transactions, an average fee of about $0.005 and a hashrate of about 3.81 EH/s.

How BCH trades: the 90-day fingerprint

We took every 1h BCHUSDT candle on Binance from 23 July to 20 October 2026 (2,160 candles) and averaged the high-to-low range for each UTC hour.

• Average daily range: 5.82%, against 2.73% for Bitcoin over the same 90 daily candles. The median BCH day was 4.68%. 69 of 90 days (77%) ranged above 3%, 42 days (47%) above 5% and 8 days (9%) above 10%.
• Busiest hour: 14:00 UTC (17:00 MSK), averaging 1.57% per hour, then 15:00 (1.34%) and 13:00 (1.31%). With the two spike days left out, 14:00 is still first at 1.51%.
• Quietest hours: 11:00, 20:00 and 04:00 UTC at 0.74%, 0.85% and 0.86% (14:00, 23:00 and 07:00 MSK). The peak is 2.1 times the quietest hour.
• By session (our UTC buckets): 13:00 to 21:00 averages 1.16% per hour, against 0.95% to 0.98% for the other three buckets.

The busy window is the European afternoon into the US open. The trading sessions tool shows those hours in your time zone, and the best time to trade crypto study uses the same method.

By UTC weekday, Friday was widest at 8.52% average range, then Thursday (7.05%) and Tuesday (6.16%). Sunday was narrowest at 4.32%. Weekend days averaged 4.35% against 6.42% on weekdays (see weekend crypto trading). Two weekday numbers lean on one day each: without 21 August (a Friday) Friday falls to 6.30%, and without 22 September (a Tuesday) Tuesday falls to 3.97%.

The sudden spikes

Those two days define BCH's recent behaviour.

• 21 August 2026: BCH opened at 223.0, reached 301.3 and closed at 288.5 (+29.3%), a 35.1% range. Three straight hours from 05:00 UTC each ranged 5.6% to 5.9%. Binance volume was 9.9 times the average of the previous 30 days. BTC rose 7.3% that day. BCH fell 4.1% the next day and closed at 248.1 seven days later, 14.0% below the spike close.
• 22 September 2026: BCH opened at 267.3, reached 348.1 and closed at 345.1 (+29.1%), a 32.4% range, on 7.2 times its 30-day average volume. BTC closed down 0.5%. Much of it came in one candle: the 12:00 UTC hour (15:00 MSK) ranged 15.9%. BCH closed 10.8% lower a week later (307.7), although its highest price in those seven days, 366.4, was above the spike's own high.
• The downside is smaller. The worst closes were -11.2% on 10 September (BTC -2.2%) and -9.7% on 8 October (BTC -1.9%).

We attach no news to any of these days: we have no dated source for one. The data only says that BCH can go 30% in a day with BTC barely moving, and that the move partly reverses within a week.

Halving cycles and what the candles did

BCH halves every 210,000 blocks, about every four years at the 10-minute target. The last two halvings were block 630,000 (mined 8 April 2020 at 12:19 UTC) and block 840,000 (mined 3 April 2024 at 22:45 UTC), per block timestamps from the public haskoin-store API. The reward fell from 6.25 to 3.125 BCH at block 840,000.

We looked at the 61 daily candles centred on each halving day, from 30 days before to 30 days after.

• 2024: BCH closed at 473.5 on 4 March, 592.8 on halving day (+25.2% in 30 days), hit a high of 719.5 on 5 April (21.4% above the halving-day close) and closed at 452.6 on 3 May, 37.1% below that high and 4.4% below where the window began. The average daily range in the window was 10.27%.
• 2020: BCH closed at 273.0 on 9 March, 267.31 on halving day and 260.3 on 8 May, 4.7% below the start. The window includes a 129 low on 13 March, and its average daily range was 10.13%.

Two events are not a pattern, and we do not claim one. They show the size of the range: both windows averaged about 10% a day, against 5.82% in our latest 90 days, and both ended within 5% of where they began. The halving changes issuance, not the order book, so size for 10% days rather than for a direction.

BCH supply, issuance and the next halving

CoinGecko on 21 October 2026: 20.11 million BCH circulating, a 21 million maximum supply and a $5.74 billion market cap, rank 22. 95.7% of the cap circulates, so about 894,000 BCH remain to be issued.

New coins come only from block rewards. At block 973,832 (the tip on 21 October 2026, timestamped 10:01 UTC, per Blockchair and the haskoin-store API), the reward has been halved four times, from 50 to 3.125 BCH. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,168 blocks away. At the 10-minute target that is about 529 days, but blocks do not arrive exactly on target: Blockchair counted 161 blocks in the past 24 hours against 144 at the target pace, and 503.125 BCH issued in that day. We give no halving date, only the block height. BCH has no unlock calendar: issuance is set in code.

Where BCH trades

We read 24-hour spot volume from the public tickers of nine venues on 21 October 2026 at about 10:17 UTC. Coinbase and Kraken report volume in BCH, converted at their own prices, so those two are approximate.

Binance printed $10.0 million, 33% of the $30.2 million across the nine. OKX followed at $5.7 million (19%), then Coinbase ($3.3 million), MEXC, KuCoin, Bybit, Kraken, Gate and Bitget. All nine together turned over about 0.5% of BCH's market cap in a day, and Coinbase and Kraken (the USD books) carried about 17% between them. New exchange listings are tracked on our listings page.

Derivatives are larger than spot. The Binance BCHUSDT perpetual traded $88.1 million in 24 hours, 8.8 times Binance spot, and the Bybit perpetual turned over $18.4 million with $37.9 million of open interest.

BCH vs BTC

Over the 90 days, BCH's daily returns correlated 0.59 with Bitcoin's, and a regression slope (beta) of 1.57 says a 1% BTC move came with about a 1.57% BCH move. Over the full year the figures were 0.62 and 1.11. On the 48 days BTC closed up it averaged +1.47% and BCH +1.95%. On the 42 days BTC closed down it averaged -1.09% and BCH -1.35%. BCH moved in the same direction as BTC on 69 of 90 days (77%) and beat it on 38 (42%).

The two spike days drive the beta. Without 21 August and 22 September the 90-day correlation is 0.75 and the beta 1.23. For the benchmark itself, read the Bitcoin guide and the BTC market page.

The 30-day correlation sat between 0.74 and 0.77 for most of the period, peaked at 0.83 on 19 September, and dropped to 0.40 on 22 September, the day of the second spike. It ended at 0.31. Excluding 22 September, the 20 October reading would be 0.72. That day leaves the window on 22 October, so the line will move again without BCH doing anything new.

Reading BCH's structure

BCH has no live page under our markets section yet, so we read the BiasNex engine directly at 10:20 UTC on 21 October 2026. On 4h its bias was bearish, in a correction context. The last 4h event was an external bullish change of character at 284.6 (04:00 UTC); on 1h it was an internal bullish break at 284.1, the previous-day high. BCH traded at about 285.5, just above it, with the previous-day low at 272.1. Read it against market structure: price has taken the 20 October high, but the 4h bias had not flipped.

Risks

• Range. At 5.82% a day, with two days over 29%, stops sized from major coins get hit. Size from the stop with the position size calculator.
• Unstable correlation. The 30-day figure ranged from 0.83 to 0.31 in two months, against 0.62 over the year.
• Derivatives dominate. Binance's perpetual alone is 8.8 times its spot volume, so liquidations can move price in either direction. The liquidation price calculator shows where yours sits.
• Halving timing. The block height is fixed, the date is not.

More coins in the same format are in the Coin Library.

FAQ

What is Bitcoin Cash used for? Mainly payments and trading: 18,704 transactions in 24 hours at an average fee of about $0.005 (Blockchair, 21 October 2026).

How many Bitcoin Cash will there ever be? 21 million, set in the source code. CoinGecko lists 20.11 million circulating on 21 October 2026, 95.7% of the cap.

When is the next Bitcoin Cash halving? At block 1,050,000, which is 76,168 blocks after the 21 October 2026 tip. The date depends on block speed, so we do not give one.

Does Bitcoin Cash follow Bitcoin? Partly. Over 90 days the daily-return correlation was 0.59 and the beta 1.57, but two days of 29% each account for much of the gap: without them the correlation is 0.75.