Bitcoin Cash (BCH) rate: how the cryptocurrency managed to remain one of the leading altcoins
The formative period of Bitcoin Cash (2017 — 2018)
The Bitcoin Cash protocol emerged as a hard fork of the original Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017. Since its listing, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) native cryptocurrency exchange rate has shown substantial volatility, ranging from $231 to $772 during the first two months.
At the very start, the BCH network's native cryptocurrency showed significant growth. The fact is that Bitcoin Cash appeared right before the beginning of the first considerable bull rally or, as it is also called, "crypto boom" in the third quarter of 2017, when many cryptocurrencies hit new all-time highs (ATH). The same happened with Bitcoin Cash: at the end of 2017, the price of the BCH cryptocurrency rose to its all-time high at $3324, which, as of October 2024, it has still failed to reach.
At the beginning of 2018, quotes of almost all cryptocurrencies collapsed, which marked the start of a prolonged "cryptozyme" in the market of digital assets. Already in April 2018, the rate of the cryptocurrency BCH fell 5 times relative to its historical maximum — to $664. Then, in May, the Bitcoin Cash rate recovered and rose to $1766, after which it began to fall sharply again.
By December 2018, the value of the BCH cryptocurrency had already fallen to a historic low of $75, which is as much as 44 times lower than the absolute maximum recorded a year earlier.
The post-crypto winter period and the new massive bull run (2019 — 2021)
After reaching the absolute minimum, the BCH cryptocurrency exchange rate began to grow gradually and already, in June 2019, amounted to $479. In other words, Bitcoin Cash grew more than 10 times in just six months relative to the historical minimum, facilitated by the overall growth of the crypto market.
A correction followed, and in February 2020, the BCH rate rose again — to $491, updating the annual maximum, before falling sharply to $152 in March. After the sharp drop, the Bitcoin Cash exchange rate gradually began to recover and was already at $311 at the end of 2020.
In early 2021, a period began, which in the crypto community is called "altcoin season" — this is the time when altcoin quotes start to grow rapidly and often reach new ATH levels.
Although the native cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash, did not update its all-time high, its price rose to $1398 by May 2021 — that's about 2.4 below ATH. It's worth noting that many altcoins, especially early ones, failed to update their all-time highs.
Protracted correction period (2021 — 2023)
While many cryptocurrencies rose in value in November 2021, and some even updated their ATH levels, the value of Bitcoin Cash began to fall as early as May 2021. In November, the Bitcoin Cash rate only grew to $717, which is almost half of the previous local high.
Then followed a long correction that lasted until June 2023, during which the BCH rate gradually declined to $106. After that, the Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency rate began to recover.
In July 2023, the value of BCH rose to $277, then corrected to $194, and gradually rose until February 2024, when the altcoin rate was $267. In March, there was a spike amid a general rise in the crypto market, and the BCH cryptocurrency exchange rate increased to a yearly high of $695 before returning to a correction that intensified in July 2024.
In July, BCH fell to $331 amid news that Mt Gox, a cryptocurrency exchange that went bankrupt in 2014, would start paying out funds in BTC and BCH cryptocurrencies to affected investors. Following this news, the quotes of many cryptocurrencies began to decline following the fall of Bitcoin. As of October 2024, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash has recovered slightly to $365.
Although much depends on the state of the crypto market and the actions of developers aimed at developing the Bitcoin Cash protocol, analysts predict the growth of the BCH cryptocurrency in the near future. In their opinion, the price of BCH will hardly exceed $400 next year, but much will depend on the general movement of the crypto market.