Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a 2017 spin-off (a 'fork') of Bitcoin, created by a faction that disagreed about how Bitcoin should scale. They wanted bigger blocks so the network could handle more transactions cheaply and be used as everyday 'peer-to-peer electronic cash' — the original vision of paying for coffee with crypto — rather than Bitcoin's path of becoming mainly a store of value. So BCH is technically very similar to Bitcoin (mined, capped supply of 21 million, proof-of-work) but optimized for cheaper, faster payments with larger blocks. Its whole identity is being usable digital cash for real transactions.
Where it stands today: Bitcoin Cash is trying to evolve beyond just payments — a 2026 network upgrade added better smart-contract and scripting capabilities, aiming to make it more programmable. It still ranks among the higher-profile coins for merchant acceptance, and it got institutional touches like being added to Kraken's institutional custody. But the honest picture is that its core bet — 'Bitcoin as everyday cash' — largely lost the narrative: Bitcoin won as 'digital gold', stablecoins took over crypto payments, and BCH's on-chain activity shows only moderate growth. So today it's an established, credible payments-focused coin living somewhat in Bitcoin's shadow, working to stay relevant as the market moved past its original thesis.