Bitcoin Cash
BCH#17BCH is a fork of Bitcoin built for cheap everyday payments, with larger blocks, proof-of-work mining and native tokens.
- Market cap
- $6.31B
- Volume 24h
- $258.65M
- All-time high
- —
- Circulating supply
- 20.1M of 21M
Passes all 8 Shariah criteria.
- 8 pass
- 0 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- HalalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Bitcoin Cash?8 Shariah criteria
8 pass · 0 caution · 0 failHolding BCH earns nothing; the protocol pays only miners, with new coins and fees, for proof-of-work.
Riba means interest, or any fixed increase on a loan. Bitcoin Cash keeps Bitcoin's reward rules: each block pays the miner a subsidy, 3.125 BCH since the April 2024 halving, plus transaction fees, in exchange for proof-of-work. There is no staking and no protocol yield, so simply holding BCH produces no income. The Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust, the main regulated fund, may not lend or pledge its BCH. Interest appears only in products built around BCH, such as exchange lending, which are assessed under trading mechanisms and do not change the asset itself.
With no interest in the asset itself, the criterion gets the maximum score; Islamic Finance Guru, the first-priority authoritative source, rates BCH permissible by the same reasoning as Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash is a working payments network with nine years of history.
Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. Bitcoin Cash clearly works: it has produced blocks since 1 August 2017, had processed about 417 million transactions by 27 September 2026, and charges fees of a fraction of a cent. Since 2023 it also carries native tokens (CashTokens). Islamic Finance Guru rates BCH permissible, so with no concrete problem the criterion gets the maximum score.
The general disagreement among tier-1 bodies about cryptocurrency (Malaysia's SC permits it as tradable goods; Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, the UAE GAIAE, Turkey's Diyanet and Indonesia's MUI prohibit it; none names Bitcoin Cash) is reflected in confidence, not in this score.
BCH is not a gambling token, but on Binance its trading is dominated by perpetual futures.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and BCH has no chance-based payout of its own. The market around it is heavily speculative, though: on 27 September 2026 Binance's BCHUSDT perpetual futures traded about $153.9 million in 24 hours against about $18.4 million on the spot pair, so futures were about 89% of the combined volume (a single-day snapshot on one exchange). On 23 September 2026 the price jumped more than 31% in a day on news of BCH futures at CME Group, according to a secondary market report.
A real function exists alongside this: Bitcoin Cash is built and used for payments, so the asset is not designed for gambling. The concrete futures dominance lowers the score within the pass band.
There is no issuer, no treasury and no development tax; block rewards and fees go only to miners as payment for their work.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. Bitcoin Cash has no company that collects revenue for BCH holders. All new coins and fees go to miners for securing the chain, which is payment for a service. In November 2020 the network rejected a rule that would have sent 8% of mined coins to one development team; the chain that kept it split off with no hashpower. The main node software, Bitcoin Cash Node, is funded by donations and sponsors.
One of the listed sponsors is Satoshi Dice, an on-chain gambling game; this is funding for a volunteer software team, not protocol income, but it is noted. None of the protocol's income comes from interest, gambling or prohibited industries. The gambling-game sponsorship of a node team lowers the score slightly.
Supply, code and upgrade rules are public and checkable, but BCH's small share of SHA-256 mining power and its history of contentious splits are real risks.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Bitcoin Cash keeps Bitcoin's 21 million cap and halving schedule; about 20.095 million BCH (about 95.7%) existed on 27 September 2026, with no premine and no unlocks. Several independent node teams publish open-source code, and every yearly upgrade is published as a specification months ahead and tested on a test network first. Two concrete risks lower the score within the pass band.
First, BCH uses the same SHA-256 mining as Bitcoin but had about 3.43 EH/s of hashpower against Bitcoin's about 956 EH/s, roughly 0.36%, so a small part of Bitcoin's mining capacity could in principle overpower the chain; Blockchair could not identify the miner of about three quarters of recent blocks. Second, disputes have split the chain twice, in 2018 (Bitcoin SV) and 2020 (the ABC chain, now eCash). None of this matches the caution examples of closed code, an anonymous team without decentralisation, unaudited reserves or pending unlocks.
Bitcoin Cash is built and used for payments, and now tokens; actual on-chain activity is modest, and a small gambling app is present.
This criterion looks at what the network is actually used for. Bitcoin Cash's design and messaging centre on everyday payments with very low fees; the payment processor BitPay accepts BCH, and since May 2023 CashTokens let people issue tokens and NFTs used for crowdfunding, exchanges and bridges. Use is modest: about 10,200 transactions in the 24 hours to 27 September 2026, with a median fee of about $0.0015.
An on-chain dice betting game, Satoshi Dice, takes bets and pays out in BCH, as its provably-fair page shows, but its share of activity was not measured and nothing suggests gambling, prohibited content or interest-based finance is the main use of the network. The main uses are permissible, so this is a pass, lowered slightly by the presence of the on-chain gambling game.
Fully paid spot BCH is widely available and can be held in one's own wallet; a fund that holds only BCH also exists.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. BCH trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on Binance and other major exchanges, and it can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet. In the US, the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCHG, quoted on OTCQX) holds only BCH and may not lend or pledge it, though it charges a 2.5% annual fee; its conversion to an exchange-listed ETF was still pending. BCH is on Kazakhstan's authorised list for local platforms. Ownership therefore does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers.
No concrete problem with permissible ownership is shown, so the criterion gets the maximum score.
Bitcoin Cash offers open, very cheap payments; its harms (mining energy, speculation, chain-split disputes) are real but moderate.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is real: anyone can send value across borders without a bank for a fraction of a cent, with no overdrafts, chargebacks or frozen funds, and merchants can accept it through processors such as BitPay. The harms are moderate. Proof-of-work uses energy, but BCH has well under 1% of Bitcoin's hashpower, so its footprint is correspondingly small. The 2018 and 2020 chain splits caused losses and confusion for users, and the chain's low hashpower is a security risk. No study measuring illicit use of BCH specifically was found.
Speculative trading losses are counted under maysir, not again here. The chain-split losses lower the score within the pass band.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying BCH with full payment and immediate delivery is widely available on major exchanges, and coins can be moved to a self-custody wallet. Spot is acceptable for a HALAL-rated asset.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCHG) holds only BCH, and its assets may not be loaned, pledged or used as collateral, so it is judged like spot. It is quoted over the counter (OTCQX), charges a 2.5% annual fee, and its conversion to an NYSE Arca-listed ETF was still pending in September 2026. No Shariah ruling on this fund was found; other funds should be checked individually.
Bitcoin Cash is designed for payments, but tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI rule that using cryptocurrency as currency is not permissible, and paying with crypto is not allowed in Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) and is banned in Turkey (central bank regulation of April 2021).
Not available: Bitcoin Cash uses proof-of-work, so there is no native staking. Any 'BCH staking' or 'earn' product offered by a platform must get its return from somewhere else, usually lending, and should be checked product by product.
Margin trading in BCH is widely offered but is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
BCH perpetual futures made up about 89% of Binance BCHUSDT volume on 27 September 2026, and a secondary market report linked a late-September price jump to CME Group's announcement of BCH futures (planned for 19 October 2026), but futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage.
Lending BCH through exchange lending or margin-funding programmes pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba.
Bitcoin Cash itself pays holders nothing, and with no staking, BCH yield products get their return from lending or leveraged strategies, which is interest or interest-like. No BCH yield product paying for real network work was identified.
Scholars quotes
Bitcoin Cash receives a Halal verdict based on a comprehensive three-layer Shariah screening evaluating its underlying infrastructure, its core application, and the asset itself.The opinion on this is the same as doing the same with any halal assets such as shares – 1) is permissible, 2) is more debatable and there are differing opinions on short-term trading.As of now, the projects provided by Bitcoin Cash appear to be in accordance with Shariah principles.Therefore, by extension, Bitcoin Cash is halal due to a similar analysis to BTC.As I mentioned at the beginning of this article it is not necessary to substantiate the permissibility of something as long as there are no prohibited factors involved in it or surrounding it.Penggunaan cryptocurrency sebagai mata uang hukumnya haram, karena mengandung gharar (ketidakjelasan), dharar (bahaya) dan bertentangan dengan Undang-Undang nomor 7 tahun 2011 tentang Mata Uang dan Peraturan Bank Indonesia nomor 17 tahun 2015 tentang Kewajiban Penggunaan Rupiah di Wilayah Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia.Sebagaimana mata wang yang lain, mata wang digital hendaklah tidak digunakan sebagai bayaran kepada barangan, perkhidmatan dan aktiviti tidak patuh Syariah seperti pembelian dadah, pelacuran, perjudian dan pendanaan aktiviti keganasan serta penggubahan wang haram.The SAC has also resolved that investment and trading of Digital Assets that fulfil the above requirements and which are traded on Digital Asset Exchange (DAX) registered with SC are permissible.Third: In light of the above and given the significant risks associated with this type of currencies and the instability of their transactions, the Council of the Academy recommends pursuing research and studies on issues affecting its ruling.Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not meet the legal and Sharia criteria that make it a currency subject to the rulings of dealing with official legal currencies recognized internationally.بناءً على ذلك: فلا يجوز شرعًا تداول عملة "البتكوين" والتعامل من خلالها بالبيعِ والشراءِ والإجارةِ وغيرها، بل يُمنع من الاشتراكِ فيها؛ لعدمِ اعتبارِها كوسيطٍ مقبولٍ للتبادلِ من الجهاتِ المخُتصَّةِ، ولِمَا تشتمل عليه من الضررِ الناشئ عن الغررِ والجهالةِ والغشِّ في مَصْرِفها ومِعْيارها وقِيمتها، فضلًا عما تؤدي إليه ممارستُها من مخاطرَ عاليةٍ على الأفراد والدول.According to research and opinion of experts so far, cryptocurrency is not considered ‘ maal ’ (wealth) in Sharia.Muhammadiyah memandang transaksi dan investasi kripto pada dasarnya mubah (boleh) tetapi dengan syarat tertentu.Our current position is 'tawaquf'; we can't say it is halal or haram, but we say it is better not to engage in itAI-assisted analysis checked against sources. Not a fatwa or investment advice.
Where it trades
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