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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The best-known lasting Bitcoin fork is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which split from Bitcoin in 2017 over how to scale the network. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) also split directly from Bitcoin; Bitcoin SV (BSV) later split from Bitcoin Cash; and eCash (XEC) emerged from the Bitcoin ABC/BCH chain. “Popular” depends on the measure: the available status overview is qualitative, dated August 2026, and does not establish a live ranking by price, trading volume, users, or search interest.
What counts as a Bitcoin fork?
The word “fork” can describe a change to software, a proposed change to network rules, or a lasting split that leaves separate networks and assets. These are not interchangeable.
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A hard fork changes consensus rules incompatibly: nodes following the old rules may reject blocks accepted under the new rules. If both branches continue, they share transaction history up to the split and then diverge. A soft fork tightens rules in a backward-compatible way. Bitcoin Core describes Segregated Witness (SegWit) as a soft-fork upgrade, so SegWit did not create a separate Bitcoin asset. Bitcoin.com’s overview of Bitcoin forks and Bitcoin Core’s capacity FAQ discuss these distinctions.
Proposals and alternative clients are not necessarily new coins. Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic, and Bitcoin Unlimited were software efforts connected to the block-size debate; the fork overview says their proposed changes did not gain enough support to activate. SegWit2x was a planned hard fork that was cancelled before launch.
#1 Best Overall
Which Bitcoin forks are the best known?
The table separates direct Bitcoin splits from later branches. Status descriptions reflect the Bitcoin.com overview’s August 2026 snapshot, not real-time verification. The overview describes BCH as the most widely traded and supported Bitcoin hard fork in that snapshot, but it does not provide a comparable dataset for ranking all the assets.
| Asset or proposal | Lineage and date | Reason or change | Status in the August 2026 overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | Split directly from Bitcoin on August 1, 2017, at block 478,558 | Created amid disagreement about on-chain scaling. The overview says its initial block-size limit was 8 MB and later became 32 MB. | Active; described as the most widely traded and supported Bitcoin hard fork in the overview. |
| Bitcoin Gold (BTG) | Split directly from Bitcoin on October 24, 2017, at block 491,407 | Changed the proof-of-work mining algorithm to Equihash, with the aim of enabling GPU mining. | Active but marginal in the overview. It reports 51% attacks in 2018 and 2020. |
| Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) | Split directly from Bitcoin on November 24, 2017, at block 495,866 | The overview lists a tenfold supply increase and faster blocks. | Largely inactive in the overview. |
| Bitcoin SV (BSV) | Split from Bitcoin Cash on November 15, 2018, at block 556,766 | Followed a dispute over protocol direction; it promoted a “Satoshi Vision” identity and larger blocks. | Active in the overview, which says it had been delisted from several major exchanges since 2019. |
| eCash (XEC) | Split from the Bitcoin ABC/BCH chain on November 15, 2020 | The Bitcoin ABC chain included a development fund in mining rewards, according to the overview. | Active but small in the overview. |
| SegWit2x (B2X) | Planned for November 2017; did not launch | Proposed a 2 MB block-size hard fork after SegWit. | Cancelled on November 8, 2017. |
Dates, block heights, design summaries, and status descriptions in this table come from Bitcoin.com’s Bitcoin fork overview. In particular, the table includes SegWit2x as a historical proposal, not as a lasting fork asset.
Why did Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin?
The central dispute was how to handle transaction capacity. Supporters of larger blocks argued that expanding the base layer would allow more transactions to be processed there. Others warned that larger blocks could make running a full node more demanding and favored SegWit and second-layer scaling instead. SegWit was deployed as a soft fork, not as a separate coin; Bitcoin Core’s FAQ describes its intended capacity and transaction-efficiency effects.
This was a disagreement between scaling approaches, not a simple contest with an objectively established technical winner. The BIP index helps distinguish a proposal from an adopted change: BIP 101, “Increase maximum block size,” is marked closed, while BIP 141, “Segregated Witness (Consensus layer),” is marked deployed. The index also lists BIP 50 as an informational post-mortem of the March 2013 chain fork and BIP 99, on motivation and deployment of consensus-rule changes, as closed.
How are the forks related?
Lineage matters: not every asset called a Bitcoin fork split from Bitcoin itself. BCH, BTG, and BCD split directly from Bitcoin in 2017. BSV branched from Bitcoin Cash in 2018, and XEC came from the Bitcoin ABC/BCH chain in 2020. BSV and XEC therefore have a different immediate predecessor from BTG.
A fork inherits some shared history and code, but that does not guarantee it will inherit Bitcoin’s users, security, liquidity, exchange access, or wallet support. The overview’s notes about reported BTG attacks and BSV delistings illustrate why those factors must be assessed separately rather than inferred from the shared history.
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How should you judge whether a fork is popular?
Choose a metric and a date before comparing projects. The August 2026 overview offers qualitative status labels, not a current numerical league table. Price alone is not a measure of technical quality or adoption.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →- Network use: Look for dated measures of transactions, active addresses, or other activity, and check that the methodology is comparable across networks.
- Markets: Check current exchange availability and distinguish trading from the ability to deposit or withdraw the asset.
- Security: Consider the chain’s consensus design, hash power or other relevant security measures, and documented incidents.
- Development and support: Check whether the project is being maintained and whether wallets and services currently support the exact asset.
- Lineage and purpose: Identify whether it split directly from Bitcoin or from another fork, and what problem its rule changes were intended to address.
These checks are especially important for assets whose activity and exchange availability can change. The August 2026 status descriptions above should not be treated as a live check of current trading or network conditions.
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What BCH figures are available, and what do they mean?
A 2026 Bitcoin Cash Trust filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports a fixed block reward of 3.125 BCH at the time of its report and approximately 20.1 million BCH outstanding on June 30, 2026. It gives BCH a maximum supply of 21 million and says the block reward halves every 210,000 blocks, with the next reduction expected in 2028. These are BCH-specific figures, not data for Bitcoin or other fork assets. See the Bitcoin Cash Trust filing.
The filing also describes the BCH protocol as open source and says no official developer group controls it: users and miners must adopt source-code changes, and partial adoption can divide the network. That is a useful reminder that a protocol’s direction depends on participation rather than a single organization’s announcement.
Do you automatically get coins when Bitcoin forks?
Not necessarily in a usable or safely accessible form. Holding private keys at the moment of a split can matter for access to assets on both chains, but the result depends on the specific fork, wallet support, custody arrangements, and replay protection. If an exchange or custodian holds the keys, its policies may determine whether and how it supports a fork. Before attempting to claim or move forked assets, check the wallet provider’s current instructions and the fork’s security guidance; do not assume that a balance shown on one network can be transferred safely on another.
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