The price of Bitcoin Cash went on a rollercoaster ride as its recent block reward halving took place yesterday, dropping as low as $565 ahead of the halving before recovering.
Bitcoin Cash is currently priced at around $676, up 11.3% on the day and almost 20% on the week, per data from CoinGecko.
At the time of the halving, which took place at block 840000, at 22:45 UTC on March 4th, the price of Bitcoin Cash was $574.90. Around half an hour ahead of the halving, it had dipped to a low of $565, from a high of $607 earlier that day, and a weekly high of $696 set on April 1st.
A modified version of Bitcoin forked from the main Bitcoin blockchain in 2017, Bitcoin Cash includes many of the same features as Bitcoin. That includes a block reward halving that takes place approximately every four years, or 210,000 blocks. In the 2024 halving, its second since the hard fork from the Bitcoin blockchain, the reward for Bitcoin Cash miners was slashed from 6.25 BCH to 3.125 BCH.
Ahead of the Bitcoin Cash halving, the price of BCH surged to its highest level since November 2021, when it peaked at $718.62. The cryptocurrency's all-time high, set in December 2017, was $3,785.82.
Proposed by a group of Bitcoin developers, Bitcoin Cash aims to offer lower fees and transaction times than Bitcoin by allowing for a greater number of transactions in a single block.
Like Bitcoin, it uses the proof-of-work consensus mechanism, and has a supply capped at 21 million coins. In 2018, Bitcoin Cash was forked, with Bitcoin Cash ABC (later rebranded as eCash) and Bitcoin Cash SV (short for Satoshi Vision) spinning off from its blockchain.
Bitcoin itself is set to undergo its own block reward halving later this month, with analysts divided on whether it will act as a bullish driver for the cryptocurrency's price. While some have projected six-figure prices post-halving, crypto exchange Coinbase has urged caution, noting that "past performance is not an indicator for future success or performance."