You receive Bitcoin Cash (BCH) by giving the sender your Bitcoin Cash address, a string that usually begins with bitcoincash:, or by letting them scan its QR code. The payment shows in your wallet within seconds and confirms with the next block, about ten minutes later. If the sender uses the Bitcoin.com Wallet, they can also send you BCH as a link, with no address needed at all.
Receive in the Bitcoin.com Wallet app:
- Open the Bitcoin.com Wallet app and tap Receive
- Select Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and the wallet you want to receive into
- Copy the address, or show the QR code for the sender to scan
Key Takeaways
- Your Bitcoin Cash address is what you share to get paid. It is safe to give out, and it cannot be used to take funds from your wallet.
- BCH addresses come in two formats for the same destination: CashAddr, starting with
bitcoincash:qorbitcoincash:p, and legacy, starting with 1 or 3. The Bitcoin.com Wallet shows CashAddr by default and can switch to legacy. - Share the CashAddr format where you can. It cannot be confused with a Bitcoin address, which protects the sender from paying on the wrong network.
- The Bitcoin.com Wallet generates a fresh BCH address after each payment for privacy. Older addresses keep working.
- Incoming BCH appears within seconds and confirms with the next block. Exchanges credit deposits only after their own required number of confirmations.
- Addresses starting with
bitcoincash:zorbitcoincash:rare token-aware. Share one only if your wallet can manage CashTokens. - A Shareable Link from a Bitcoin.com Wallet user arrives as a message. Tap it to claim the BCH.
How to Find Your Bitcoin Cash Address
In the Bitcoin.com Wallet:
- From the home screen, tap Receive.
- Select Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as the asset.
- Under Receiving wallet, choose which BCH wallet the payment should go to, for example a savings wallet or a spending wallet.
- Your address appears as text and as a QR code.
Each wallet in the app has its own addresses, so pick the right one before sharing. If you do not have a Bitcoin Cash wallet yet, creating one in the app takes about a minute, and the first thing to do afterward is back it up.
Bitcoin Cash Address Formats
A Bitcoin Cash address can be written in more than one way, and the format tells you what kind of address it is.
| Format | Starts with | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| CashAddr, standard | bitcoincash:q | A regular single-key address. The usual format for personal wallets |
| CashAddr, script | bitcoincash:p | A script address, such as a multisig wallet |
| CashAddr, token-aware | bitcoincash:z | A standard address that signals its wallet can hold CashTokens |
| CashAddr, token-aware script | bitcoincash:r | A script address that signals token support |
| Legacy, standard | 1 | The same as q, written in the older format |
| Legacy, script | 3 | The same as p, written in the older format |
CashAddr arrived in 2018, a year after Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin, because legacy BCH addresses look exactly like Bitcoin addresses. A CashAddr string cannot be pasted into a Bitcoin wallet by mistake, and the bitcoincash: prefix makes the network obvious.
The two formats are different spellings of one address. These two point to exactly the same destination:
bitcoincash:pqx5ej6z9cvxc2c7nw5p4s5kf8nzmzc5cqapu8xprq32uLhn19ZasD5bsVhLdDthhM37JhJHiEE2
The Bitcoin.com Wallet shows CashAddr by default, and you can toggle the display to legacy. Some older services only accept legacy addresses, and switching the display lets you give them a format they recognize without changing where the funds arrive.
Token-aware addresses came with the CashTokens upgrade, activated on May 15, 2023, which added native tokens and NFTs to Bitcoin Cash. Under the CashTokens specification, only wallets that can manage tokens should hand out z or r addresses, so a sender's wallet knows it is safe to send tokens there. Plain BCH can be sent to any of the formats above.
How to Share Your Address
- Copy and send it. Tap the address to copy it, then paste it into a message, email, or invoice.
- Show the QR code. If the sender is with you, they can scan it with their wallet, which avoids typing errors entirely.
- Send a screenshot of the QR code. Useful when the sender is paying from a phone.
After you share an address, ask the sender to check the first and last several characters against what you sent. Malware on either device can swap a copied address, and a quick read-back catches it.
The Bitcoin.com Wallet automatically generates a new Bitcoin Cash address after each payment you receive, which keeps your payment history harder to link together. Every address it has generated keeps working, so a sender using an old one still reaches you.
Receiving Bitcoin Cash from an Exchange
To move BCH from an exchange into your own wallet, copy your Bitcoin Cash address from the app and use the exchange's Withdraw option. Choose Bitcoin Cash, paste the address, and check that the network shown is Bitcoin Cash before confirming.
If the exchange rejects your address, switch the display in the app to legacy format and paste that version. Both formats deliver to the same place. Exchanges charge their own withdrawal fees and may delay withdrawals for security checks, and moving BCH into a wallet you control means the exchange no longer holds your coins.
Depositing BCH into an exchange works the other way around: the exchange gives you its Bitcoin Cash deposit address, and the BCH is credited once the exchange's required number of confirmations is reached.
Receiving a Shareable Link
A sender using the Bitcoin.com Wallet can skip your address entirely and send BCH as a link through any messaging app. Tap the link to claim the funds. If you do not have the wallet yet, the link takes you to install it first, and the BCH arrives once you tap the link again after installing. Anyone who opens a Shareable Link before you can claim it, so open one as soon as it arrives.
How Long It Takes to Receive BCH
| Stage | Typical timing | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Payment broadcast | Seconds | The incoming payment appears in your wallet as pending |
| First confirmation | About 10 minutes on average | The payment is recorded in a block |
| Exchange credit | Depends on the exchange | The exchange balance updates after its required confirmations |
Bitcoin Cash network fees are generally less than a cent and blocks are rarely full, so a standard payment normally confirms in the next block. Looking up the transaction ID in a Bitcoin Cash block explorer shows its status at any point, and how block explorers work makes the results easier to read.
Is It Safe to Share Your Bitcoin Cash Address?
Yes. An address only lets people send to you. Spending from it requires the private key, which never leaves your wallet, and the private key and recovery phrase are the things to keep secret.
What an address does reveal is history. The Bitcoin Cash blockchain is public, so anyone with your address can look up its balance and every transaction it has been part of. Using a fresh address for each payment, which the Bitcoin.com Wallet does automatically, limits how much one address shows.
Nobody needs your recovery phrase to send you BCH, so a "sender" or "support agent" who asks for it is attempting theft. Equally, a payment you did not expect, followed by a request to send it back to a different address, is a common fraud pattern.
When a Payment Has Not Arrived
| Possible cause | How to check | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Still confirming | Look up the transaction ID in a block explorer | Wait for the next block, usually within about ten minutes |
| Wrong receiving wallet | Check your other BCH wallets in the app | Payments go to whichever wallet's address the sender used |
| Sender used a different address | Ask the sender for the address and transaction ID | Compare it character by character with what you shared |
| Exchange withdrawal not yet processed | Check the withdrawal status on the exchange | Wait, or contact the exchange's support |
| Bitcoin (BTC) sent to your BCH address | Look up the transaction on a Bitcoin explorer | See below |
If someone sent Bitcoin to a legacy-format BCH address that you control, the BTC exists on the Bitcoin network at that address, and the same private key controls it there. It can usually be recovered by importing that Bitcoin Cash wallet's recovery phrase into a Bitcoin wallet, in wallet software you trust. This only works with legacy addresses, since Bitcoin wallets reject CashAddr strings, which is one more reason to share the CashAddr format. The reverse mistake, BCH sent to a Bitcoin address, is more common, and whether that BCH can be recovered depends mostly on what kind of Bitcoin address received it.
Conclusion
Receiving Bitcoin Cash comes down to sharing the right address. Open your BCH wallet, tap Receive, and give the sender the CashAddr version beginning with bitcoincash:, or let them scan the QR code. The payment shows within seconds and confirms in about ten minutes, and the app moves you to a fresh address afterward for privacy. Share the legacy format only when a service insists on it, share token-aware addresses only if your wallet handles tokens, and treat anyone who asks for your recovery phrase as a thief. Receiving Bitcoin itself follows the same steps, with different address formats and higher network fees.
