Bitcoin Cash Price Prediction 2018: Is it too late to buy Bitcoin Cash?

2017 was a big year for Bitcoin Cash. What will 2018 hold?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) had an eventful year in 2017. It was created in August as fork of bitcoin, amidst a storm of controversy. It quickly beat back the doubters with strong growth and reached a high of over US$900 by the end of the month.

Then it slumped back down. But in November it quickly surged to around $2,000 as people jumped aboard following bitcoin's Segwit2x controversy. Then the market readjusted and it slumped again.

It leapt again just before Christmas though. When CoinBase announced that it would be accepting Bitcoin Cash, prices jumped to a new all time high of over $4,000. As it entered the new year, BCH prices were riding at a relatively consistent $2,500.

Why Bitcoin Cash could keep going

It seems to have untapped demand

Since its creation Bitcoin Cash has ballooned with little encouragement. Wider available has always seen plenty of new users jump on board, with corresponding price rises. A quick look at its brief price history makes it easy to conclude that it still has room to grow.

It's still nowhere near as widely available as bitcoin or Ethereum, so there's the potential for more spikes as it's picked up by additional exchanges and further opened to the market.

How to buy Bitcoin Cash

Traditionally it's also tended to draw most of its new users from dissatisfied bitcoin buyers. This might continue until BTC resolves its problems with transaction times, and transaction fees.

It's resilient and familiar

Each spike has added tens of millions to the Bitcoin Cash market cap. Despite the inevitable readjustments, it's always stayed higher than it started. If you feel like Bitcoin Cash has more spikes in its future, it might be worth putting some money behind it.

It's also very technologically familiar, functioning a lot like bitcoin other than a larger block size. This means some of the new bitcoin infrastructure, such as bitcoin ATMs, bitcoin EFTPOS cards and more, could make the switch to Bitcoin Cash relatively easily.

It's well known and has major supporters

Bitcoin Cash has attracted some major supporters, especially in the form of dissatisfied bitcoin converts. For example, the founder and CEO of Bitcoin.com publicly announced that he was done with bitcoin and turning everything to Bitcoin Cash.

This growing support is likely to drive further growth of Bitcoin Cash as a valid payment method, and draw over more of the infrastructure that's been getting behind bitcoin core.

What to watch out for

The main problems for Bitcoin Cash in 2018 are probably going to be increased competition, from both bitcoin and other newer altcoins.

The main advantage Bitcoin Cash has over bitcoin is quicker and cheaper transactions. To solve this, bitcoin is releasing its Lightning Network updates sometime in 2018. If they work exactly as promised, and if they see wide enough uptake then bitcoin could surge back up, drawing back the Bitcoin Cash converts. But the Lightning Network is still far from a sure thing. It will most likely be a lot of fairly expensive work for any node that wants to use it, which might discourage uptake.

Bitcoin will also be getting benefits like Rootstock smart contract add-ons which could put bitcoin back in the limelight.

In the long run this town might not be big enough for both bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Both have typically seen their prices go in opposite directions to each other, so good news for bitcoin might be bad news for BCH.

But there's also the possibility of altcoins leaving both behind in 2018. If investors decide the "store of value" story is wearing thin, then both bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash might be out on their ear by the end of the year.

The verdict

Bitcoin Cash is down over 15% over the last 24 hours at the time of writing, but it's safe to say that people will take the opportunity to buy low and shore the prices back up.

Bitcoin Cash probably has at least one or two spikes left. Even if it does go down for good, it's probably going to go up first. There are some big names and big money behind Bitcoin Cash, and they're probably going to be a good source of hype in the coming months. It's also going to be a few months at least before the Lightning Network goes live, which provides a useful window of opportunity.

Bitcoin Cash probably isn't the best use of anyone's money, and it almost certainly won't be your best friend in the long run. But there are most likely still profits to be made, even if they do come from riding BCH on its way down.