Bitcoin forks: which ones survived?

None of the forks managed to surpass Bitcoin, and many of them are either on the verge of collapse or have already become "dead" projects. However, some have managed not only to stay "afloat" but also to earn their place among the leading digital assets.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Although launched back in 2017, Bitcoin Cash is far from being the first Bitcoin fork. As of June 2025, it remains the largest by market capitalization and ranks 12th overall among cryptocurrencies.

Notably, Bitcoin Cash has forked twice:

• First, in August 2017, from the primary Bitcoin protocol;
• Then, in November 2018, a new fork emerged, resulting in a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (Bitcoin SV).

The Bitcoin Cash blockchain is nearly identical to the Bitcoin protocol but with an eightfold increase in block size, allowing it to process significantly more transactions. The BCH supply is the same as BTC — 21 million. As of June 2025, 19.8 million BCH coins (94.6%) have been mined.

In May 2025, a significant upgrade was activated on the Bitcoin Cash network, which, according to developers, makes the blockchain more functional than Ethereum. The upgrade also enhances Bitcoin Cash's blockchain performance and enables users to create their custom tokens.

The market capitalization of Bitcoin Cash is $9.8 billion, and the BCH token is valued at $497. Since its launch (fork), the price has dropped by ~10%, with an all-time high (ATH) of $4,355 recorded in December 2017.

Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin was the second fork of Bitcoin and ranks second after Bitcoin Cash by market capitalization, which, as of June 2025, stands at $6.4 billion. This puts Litecoin among the top twenty cryptocurrencies.

Technically, Litecoin is not a "branch" of Bitcoin, unlike the others on this list. The Litecoin blockchain is not a continuation of the Bitcoin chain, but rather, it is based on its source code. The key difference of the Litecoin protocol is a 4x faster block generation time: 2.5 minutes instead of 10. This boosted blockchain performance by a factor of four. Due to this, Litecoin is often referred to as Bitcoin's "younger brother" and "digital silver."

The supply of LTC is also limited, like BTC, but four times higher — 84 million. Currently, over 90% of coins (~76 million LTC) have been mined. LTC is actively used for payments due to its low fees, with approximately 190,000 daily transactions occurring on the Litecoin network.

Over the past three years, the Litecoin team has released critical security updates. However, the project continues to develop not only technically: experts see a high likelihood of approval for a Litecoin ETF, with several major investment firms already filing applications. In January 2025, Litecoin ETF was listed with the U.S. clearinghouse DTCC. Analysts note this step usually precedes the product's launch.

As of June 2025, the price of LTC is $ 80.60, and since its listing on exchanges, the price has increased by more than 1,800%. Litecoin reached its ATH of $412 in May 2021.

Bitcoin SV (BSV)

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision emerged as a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash in November 2018. The fork happened due to disagreements within the Bitcoin Cash team, which split into two factions. Supporters of Bitcoin SV advocated for increasing the block size to 128 MB.

Despite minor technological differences, Bitcoin SV did not receive the same level of support as Bitcoin Cash. As of June 2025, BSV's market capitalization is $611 million, ranking it within the top 100 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap.

The BSV price is $30.76, which is 65% lower than at the time of the fork. The all-time high was recorded in April 2021 at $491. Although BSV still holds a decent ranking, it shows no positive momentum due to a lack of significant updates and ecosystem development.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin SV cannot be considered unused, as the network processes around 75,000 daily transactions. According to BitInfoCharts, this number even exceeded 80 million in May 2025.

Namecoin (NMC)

Namecoin was the first-ever fork of Bitcoin's technology, launched in September 2011. In essence, Namecoin is a decentralized alternative to the Domain Name System (DNS).

The Namecoin project remains active, with developers continuing to release updates that enhance protocol performance. For example, in May 2025, the team announced Occlumask — a new tool to detect anonymity leaks.

Despite its technological progress, Namecoin's native cryptocurrency, NMC, shows weak performance, with a market capitalization of only $16 million, placing it 864th on the CMC ranking.

NMC's current price is $1.14, just 3% higher than its listing price in April 2013. The all-time high for Namecoin was $16.3, recorded in November 2013.

Bitcoin Gold (BTG)

The Bitcoin Gold fork was intended to make cryptocurrency mining accessible on GPUs by making it harder for specialized ASIC miners. However, the idea ultimately failed, and during the project's existence, the Bitcoin Gold network suffered two attacks.

Due to these security issues, interest in Bitcoin Gold steadily declined: since its launch, the BTG price has dropped by over 99%. As of June 2025, its market capitalization is $12.6 million, and the BTG token trades at only $0.72. The altcoin ranks just 972nd among cryptocurrencies.

The sharpest decline began in early 2025, indicating a rapid fading of investor interest due to the lack of significant updates or ecosystem development in recent years.

That said, the project is not entirely abandoned. For example, in January 2025, the Bitcoin Gold team published a roadmap that includes the planned release of a native stablecoin — USDGOLD (USDG).