Bitcoin Cash: Riding High or Facing Challenges?

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network has processed 81% fewer transactions per day than Bitcoin (BTC) over the last 9 days.

According to the CoinDance data, the BCH network processed 85,140 transactions during Jan. 20-29, while its primary “competitor” processed 471,660. The project was created in an attempt to displace Bitcoin through larger block sizes, but that vision fell flat on its face. Cryptomode dives deeper into the current state of Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin Cash sees waning interest

The overall Bitcoin Cash hashrate is also falling. During January, this indicator did not exceed 2EH/s. At the same time, Bitcoin is at 500-565 EH/s. 

The low hashrate indicates that the cryptocurrency is easy to mine. Of course, the more popular a coin is, the higher the demand and the more challenging the mining process. 

Comparison of hashrate of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC). Source: CoinDance

According to BitInfoChars data, the profitability of BCH mining has decreased significantly in recent years. In October 2021, its profit was $0.473 per terahash/second. Now, this figure has collapsed to $0.0822, a loss of 82.6%. 

Profit from BCH mining. Source: BitInfoChars

At the same time, Bitcoin Cash has the 20th largest market cap at $4.6 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. One line above it is LiteCoin (LTC) with a market cap of $5 billion.

It’s worth noting that the price of BCH is more volatile than its main rival over the weekend. Since Jan. 26, the crypto market has moved to the bullish side. Bitcoin rose above $42,000, causing the rest of the altcoins to rise. 

However, the price of BCH went in the opposite direction, falling from $245 to $238 in 24 hours.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC) price comparison for Jan. 28. Source: CoinMarketCap

Community solidarity

Interestingly, the BCH community is still actively discussing the project and wondering what happened. The Bitcoin Cash page on Reddit has over 100,000 subscribers and fresh discussions. 

Perhaps one of the reasons the project is still alive is the frustration of enthusiasts in the cryptocurrency market. One of the main pillars of “decentralization” has wavered, and exchanges now require document verification and reporting to governments.

Also, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs was not to the liking of some BCH fans, who caught the coin’s origins back in the day. Against this backdrop, BCH looks like a reminder of past ideals. 

However, there may be other reasons as well. For example, Bitcoin Cash is still very popular in online casinos. It is quite difficult to cite statistics on this topic due to the market’s peculiarities, but if you type in an internet search engine, it will show many resources on BCH and gambling.

The metrics also show that the number of active addresses is growing. At the same time, it is noticeable that this dynamic is very volatile. On Jan. 10, the number of active addresses jumped to 323,504. On Jan. 26, this number dropped significantly to 26,011.

Changes in the number of active BCH addresses. Source: BitInfoChars