The halving of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) took place earlier this week. BCH price, hashrate, future prospects… We take stock of what’s been going on for the Bitcoin (BTC) fork.
The halving of Bitcoin Cash has gone ahead as planned
Since April 4, the Bitcoin Cash network has seen mining rewards halved. These have fallen from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH. As with Bitcoin, the mechanism is designed to control inflation. At the current rate, 6.25 BCH corresponds to around $3,880.
Unsurprisingly, the network hashrate, i.e. the computing power of Bitcoin Cash miners, has fallen sharply. It was divided by 4 immediately after the halving, as some players left the network:
Bitcoin Cash hashrate progression over one month
While the transition went smoothly, there was a big slowdown during the Bitcoin Cash halving. As with the last halving, block production slowed well beyond the usual 10 minutes, before the difficulty adjustment mechanism kicked in.
Since then, however, the Bitcoin Cash network has been operating normally. The hashrate continues to be lower. We also note that some BCH miners have chosen to transition their activity to BTC, while Bitcoin is waiting for its own halving.
BCH price has been hesitant since halving
The BCH price had benefited greatly from the anticipation of halving, and the rather favorable context in the ecosystem. Bitcoin Cash gained 208% in the space of 2 months:
The evolution of the Bitcoin Cash price over the last two months
But since April 4, the BCH price has been more hesitant. The trend has been rather bearish: in the space of a week, the cryptocurrency has fallen by 10%.
It’s worth remembering, however, that the effects of a halving on the price tend to be seen over the months that follow, and not over such a short timeframe. It will therefore be interesting to see whether BCH will follow the example of its big brother BTC, appreciating strongly following the reduction in mining rewards.
As a reminder, the BCH price had risen sharply after its 2020 halving, peaking at $1,640 in May 2021. But it was still a long way from its all-time high of 2017, when its price had exceeded $3,780.
