Difference Between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash

By: | Updated: Jan-6, 2024
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There are several different cryptocurrencies that share the Bitcoin name. You have the traditional Bitcoin token, which is the largest cryptocurrency coin available. Then you also have other coins that have Bitcoin in the name, like Bitcoin Cash, Wrapped Bitcoin, and others. When searching for Bitcoin price Canada for instance, you may come across pricing from additional coins than the original. We’re going to look specifically at the difference between Bitcoin Cash and Wrapped Bitcoin here so you won’t get them confused and you’ll know which one is the better option.

What Makes Them Different?

Difference Between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash

Every so often, Bitcoin will fork and split off into another coin. Most of these forks will crash and burn, not lasting very long. One of the only successful forks from the coin is when it produced Bitcoin Cash. That cryptocurrency is actually still going strong today.

These two coins have some similarities, but they’re also very different in some key aspects, and we’re going to look at what those differences are.

One major difference between the coins is their block size. They are each part of a large blockchain, made-up of smaller blocks. The Bitcoin blocks have a maximum size of 1MB, while the Bitcoin Cash blocks max out at 32MB. That’s a huge difference. What this allows Bitcoin cash to do that Bitcoin can do is to include more transactions in a single block.

As fast as Bitcoin transactions are, they simply can’t compare to some of the newer cryptocurrencies that are designed for incredibly rapid transactions. Bitcoin Cash has that advantage over Bitcoin, so transactions can happen much quicker, allowing for faster trading. That can be advantageous to traders who are looking very closely at the coin and trying to make split second decisions to maximize their profit and minimize their loss.

Technically speaking, this means that Bitcoin can produce seven transactions per second, and double that if you’re using SegWit (a soft fork upgrade for Bitcoin). Compare that to Bitcoin Cash, whose network can produce about 100 transactions each second. The difference is astounding.

In a few ways, Bitcoin cash is technically superior to Bitcoin. The technology behind it makes Bitcoin Cash more centralized than its counterpart, and there are certain advantages to that. You might think that would make Bitcoin Cash the obvious choice for investors, but is that how things have turned out?

Which Is the Better Investment?

Both of these coins are going quite strong, as anyone can see if they’ve looked at the trade volume and activity for these coins over the last couple years. Bitcoin is still ranked number one overall on the crypto market, and it has been since it launched. There doesn’t seem to be any risk that is going to be overtaken soon by another cryptocurrency. The ranking is based off overall trade volume, but also the trade volume for each day. If any crypto coin were to trade in greater volume than Bitcoin for the day, it would surpass it in rank for that day.

Bitcoin Cash has never beaten Bitcoin because Bitcoin has been around longer and has a larger overall adoption rate among investors. That means that more people have invested in Bitcoin and bought up more of it than they have Bitcoin Cash. It’s probably going to be that way for years to come as well, and that’s the advantage Bitcoin has over its competitors in that it is simply been around longer and is more trusted and widely known.

What this means is that there’s more Bitcoin being traded each day than Bitcoin Cash. How this affects the pricing is that Bitcoin has a tendency to be more stable and predictable than Bitcoin Cash. No cryptocurrency is considered stable outside the stablecoins that are tied to some other currency. However, trusted crypto coins with high trade volume like Bitcoin can be considered comparatively stable when matched up against other lower ranking, less trusted coins.

That’s the situation with Bitcoin compared to Bitcoin Cash. On top of that, Bitcoin is a market mover, and as it moves, so does a lot of the market below it. So, Bitcoin Cash’s rate is affected by bitcoins rate. As Bitcoin moves, Bitcoin Cash will likely move as well, though not always in the same measures.

If you’re someone who likes to day trade, keeping a close eye on cryptocurrency movement, you can find value in both these coins, but you’re more likely to see regular movement with Bitcoin than you would with Bitcoin Cash. That moment-to-moment movement that keeps you so occupied you have to hire someone to clean your home or pick up your kids from school because you have to stay glued to the screen is more likely with Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash on the other hand, is seen more as a position trade or swing trade coin that will move significantly over time.

So, which is the better investment? Bitcoin Cash can be more volatile because it doesn’t take as much trade volume to move the price around. However, there’s a lot more action happening with Bitcoin because of its much larger trade volume. There’s also a lot more analytical resources available for Bitcoin compared to Bitcoin Cash, just because of the wider mainstream reach. So, it’s easier to invest wisely in Bitcoin, whereas Bitcoin Cash is a bit more of a risk. There may be times where Bitcoin Cash is the better investment, because there might be indications that the coin is going to break out and the price will climb high very quickly. Overall, though, most analysts would say that Bitcoin is the better investment.

One of the reasons for that is simply that Bitcoin is more reliable and is less likely to be legislated against or suffer from a massive devaluing. There’s always great risk in investing in cryptocurrency of any kind since these are not centralized monetary units.

Both of these coins are available on a wide range of markets, but Bitcoin is more readily available and can be traded more easily than Bitcoin Cash.

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