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Buying BCH with a debit or credit card
A card is the quickest way to get Bitcoin Cash if you are starting from your bank account rather than from crypto you already hold. You enter an amount, pick your card, and the BCH is sent to the address you nominated once the payment clears. Card purchases are usually the faster option; bank transfer is usually cheaper than paying by card, where available, and takes longer to settle.
Which methods you actually see depends on your country and on the payment provider handling the purchase, and the provider lists your options before you confirm. The minimum purchase is $30, and you buy by amount rather than by whole coins, so there is no need to buy a whole BCH.
One thing worth checking before paying by credit card: some issuers treat cryptocurrency purchases as a cash advance rather than an ordinary purchase, which can mean a higher interest rate with no grace period plus a cash-advance fee, on top of the purchase fee. That is a decision your card issuer makes, not Bitcoin.com. Debit-card purchases generally don't carry credit-card cash-advance interest, although bank, issuer or provider fees may still apply. How payment methods compare across crypto generally is set out on our page dedicated to buying crypto.
Swapping Bitcoin for Bitcoin Cash
If you already hold BTC, you do not need a card at all. Swapping Bitcoin for Bitcoin Cash is an on-chain exchange of one asset for another: no bank payment, no fiat provider in the middle, and the BCH goes straight to an address you control. It happens in a wallet or on an exchange that supports both coins, rather than through the buy widget on this page, which takes card and bank payments. The Bitcoin.com Wallet holds both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash and can swap between them. It is a common route precisely because so many people hold BTC first and BCH second.
What you get depends on the BTC to BCH rate at the moment you trade, plus whatever spread the service applies and the network fee on each side. The rate moves independently of the dollar price of either coin, so it is worth checking before you commit rather than after. Our BCH to USD converter prices Bitcoin Cash against the dollar rather than against Bitcoin, so use it to sanity-check what an amount of BCH is worth rather than to price the swap itself.
Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin: what the difference means when you are buying
Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in August 2017, after a long disagreement about how to let the network handle more transactions. Bitcoin kept small blocks and scaled elsewhere; Bitcoin Cash raised the block size so more transactions fit on the chain itself. Both are capped at 21 million coins and both use the same proof-of-work mining model.
| Column 1 | Bitcoin (BTC) | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) |
|---|---|---|
| Block size | Small, so space is contested | Larger, so space rarely is |
| Typical fee | Rises when the network is busy | Usually a fraction of a cent |
| Supply cap | 21 million | 21 million |
| Mostly used as | A store of value | Everyday payments |
For a buyer, the practical difference is cost and purpose. If you want the asset with the longest record and the deepest market, that is Bitcoin. If you want something cheap enough to actually move around in small amounts, that is Bitcoin Cash. Neither choice is the obviously correct one, and plenty of people hold both. There is more background in our explainer on what Bitcoin Cash is.
What BCH is useful for once you own it
Bitcoin Cash was designed to be spent, and that is still what distinguishes it. A transfer typically costs a fraction of a cent, which makes small payments practical in a way they are not on chains where the fee can exceed the amount being sent. Sending someone a few dollars, tipping, splitting a bill or paying a merchant all work without the fee swallowing the payment.
Merchants and payment processors accept it directly, and because blocks arrive roughly every ten minutes, a payment is normally confirmed within that sort of window. If your reason for buying is that you intend to use the coin rather than hold it, BCH is one of the few assets where that is a realistic plan rather than a slogan.
Where your Bitcoin Cash goes
Your BCH is sent to the Bitcoin Cash address you give during checkout, so it arrives in a wallet you control rather than an account balance someone holds for you. Copy the receiving address from the wallet itself rather than typing it, and for an unfamiliar destination send a small amount first, because a confirmed transfer cannot be reversed. If you do not have somewhere to put it yet, our Bitcoin Cash wallet page covers setting one up and what self-custody means.
Selling BCH
Turning Bitcoin Cash back into your local currency is the purchase run backwards: a provider takes the BCH and pays out to a card or bank account, within the verification rules and regional limits that apply to you. The sell Bitcoin Cash page starts that. Swapping BCH for another cryptocurrency is a different thing, stays on-chain, and does not produce cash. For the live rate and chart, the Bitcoin Cash price page has them.
