NEW YORK, April 23, 2026, 04:46 EDT
Bitcoin Cash slipped in early Thursday action, pulling back after Wednesday’s gains as focus shifted to U.S. derivatives on the asset. Spot BCH changed hands at $455.82. Over at Coinbase, the BCH perpetual contract was quoted at $456.40, off its 24-hour peak of $473.60.
This matters as U.S. exchanges angle for a bigger slice of perpetual futures—a leveraged, expiry-free market that can stir up volatility in less-traded coins if it attracts more volume. Still, Coinbase’s BCH perpetual contract hasn’t gained much traction: open interest sat at just $1.25K, with 24-hour volume reaching only $1.98K on Thursday. Appetite for leveraged BCH in the U.S. remains thin.
On Thursday, Bitcoin Cash—a bitcoin offshoot aimed at boosting transaction volume for routine payments—was valued at roughly $9.23 billion. That figure trails both bitcoin’s $77,753 and ether’s $2,336 by a wide margin, but it’s still enough to secure Bitcoin Cash a spot on a leading U.S. derivatives platform.
On Wednesday, Reuters said exchanges are scrambling to grab a piece of the U.S. perpetual futures market, with regulatory moves on the horizon. Kraken’s parent is snapping up Bitnomial in a deal worth as much as $550 million, aiming to break into the space. Robinhood is looking at possible U.S. offerings, while Gemini says it’s also eyeing the perps market.
Last month, CFTC Chair Michael Selig signaled the agency was gearing up to act “in the near future.” Rebecca Rettig, chief legal and operating officer at Jito Labs, described regulators as “extremely engaged” with the sector over how these products mesh with existing rules. That’s significant for BCH: Coinbase, on its U.S. derivatives exchange, already lists a cash-settled, five-year Bitcoin Cash perpetual-style contract. Reuters
Coinbase’s U.S. futures chief Boris Ilyevsky told Reuters he’s seeing continued momentum from retail traders in perps, with the exchange processing millions of those trades daily—totaling billions in notional value each day. Bitwise research head Ryan Rasmussen added that perpetuals are likely to draw in more risk-seeking investors than traditional futures.
The flip side stands out. Ben Schiffrin at Better Markets flagged a risk: when leverage cuts the wrong way, losses often “compound and compound.” BCH dropped roughly 3.6% this Thursday, and activity in the Coinbase contract looked thin. Reuters
BCH is looking at a fresh catalyst of its own. According to the Bitcoin Cash Node team, version 29.0.0 rolls out support for the network’s planned May 15, 2026 upgrade. Users still on version 28.x or earlier will need to update ahead of that date to avoid losing compatibility after the activation.
The update introduces fresh scripting capabilities, shaking up the core rules for transaction behavior — with Pay to Script, bounded looping, function calls, and bitwise ops now on the table. For developers, that means more complex transaction logic can be built right onto the network itself.
Still, after Thursday’s drop, BCH remains far from its $667.95 peak in Coinbase’s one-year chart. Without stronger U.S. derivatives activity or a glitch-free May upgrade, Bitcoin Cash looks set for more choppy moves instead of finding a consistent bid.
