What Is Bitcoin SV (BSV)? A Big-Block Bitcoin Fork Coin

Bitcoin SV (BSV) is a cryptocurrency built for very large blocks, born when it split from Bitcoin Cash in a 2018 hard fork. Bitcoin Cash had broken away from Bitcoin in 2017, so BSV shares Bitcoin's early history and its mining design but trades as a separate coin with its own chain and price.

What you're buying into is a coin that has already released almost all of its supply. Bitcoin SV's code issues new coins on the same halving schedule as Bitcoin's, which stops a fraction under 21 million. By the early-November close about 95.8% of that supply had been paid out, and the next cut in the block reward was 75,319 blocks away.

Bitcoin SV Supply at a Glance

What Is the Difference Between Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV?

Block size is the big one. Bitcoin's code caps every block at 4 million weight units, which holds a block to 4 MB or less. Bitcoin SV's node software makes each operator set the largest block they'll accept, and a setting of zero means no limit at all. Its mining code's default has allowed blocks of up to 128 MB since July 2019.

Room in a Bitcoin block is capped, so its node software fills each block with the best-paying transactions first. A payment with a low fee can wait through busy stretches, and that's how people end up with a stuck Bitcoin transaction.

Capacity and use are two different things, though. On one early-November day the BSV chain added 145 blocks holding about 468 MB of data. That made the average block about 3.2 MB, below Bitcoin's own ceiling.

Every node has to apply the same rules for a network to keep agreeing on one chain. So when one group of miners changes a rule like the block limit and another group doesn't, the chain splits into two coins. A split like that is a hard fork. It's how both Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV began.

Bitcoin SV also switched back on script commands that Bitcoin had turned off. Its first full node release for the November 2018 upgrade re-enabled four of them, for multiplication and bit operations. Bitcoin's own code still rejects all four as disabled.

What the two coins share is the supply rule. Both codebases start the block reward at 50 coins and halve it on the same 210,000-block rhythm, and both aim for a block about every 10 minutes, close to 144 a day.

How Many BSV Coins Are There?

Bitcoin SV paid 50 coins for each of its first 210,000 blocks, inherited from Bitcoin's own launch, and its code halves that reward every 210,000 blocks. Added up, the payouts stop a fraction under 21 million coins, because the reward eventually rounds down to zero.

The code also holds a 21 million figure as an upper limit on any single amount, and its own comment says that limit isn't the total supply.

The chain had reached block 974,681 at the early-November close. Counting every block's reward from the first one to that block, the schedule had released about 20.11 million BSV. Each new block paid 3.125 BSV plus whatever fees its transactions carried. That left fewer than 900,000 coins still to issue.

The halvings have come roughly four years apart, the first two on the shared chain before Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin SV existed.

The next one comes at block 1,050,000. Blocks don't land on a fixed clock, so the 75,319 blocks left at the close don't turn into a reliable date. When it arrives, the reward drops to about 1.56 BSV a block.

One early-November day of 145 blocks paid out about 453 new BSV. New coins entering circulation are what inflation in crypto means, and at that day's pace they'd add a little over 0.8% to BSV's supply in a year. The next halving cuts that rate in half.

How Is Bitcoin SV Different From Bitcoin Cash?

Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash share every block up to November 2018, when the Bitcoin Cash network had a scheduled upgrade and its node teams shipped rules that didn't match. BSV's own wiki records that Bitcoin Cash developers added a new transaction-ordering rule and new script commands.

The miners who rejected those changes kept mining under the BSV name. The other side kept the Bitcoin Cash name and its BCH ticker.

Bitcoin SV's first full node release, built for that same upgrade, pushed on capacity. It raised the default size of blocks it accepts to 128 MB and lifted the limit on commands per script from 201 to 500. The February 2020 upgrade called Genesis raised or removed a long list of other limits, the block size limit among them.

For a holder, the split means two separate coins. Anyone who held Bitcoin Cash before November 2018 held the same amount of BSV after it, and from then on each coin had its own chain, its own blocks and its own price.

How to Buy Bitcoin SV Safely

Phemex lists no BSV perpetual or order-book spot pair. If you buy the coin on another platform, the safety checks below are yours to make.

Buying carefully won't protect you from the price, so know BSV's record first. BSV closed early November near $16, about 96% below its highest daily close of roughly $441 in April 2021 on CoinMarketCap's record. Its 2026 closes to early November swung from about $11 in June to about $22 in September, roughly a doubling in three months.

Getting back to the 2021 top would take a rise of about 27 times. It's the same arithmetic that explains why losing 50% requires a 100% gain, on a much larger scale.

1. Pick a wallet that lists Bitcoin SV or BSV by name. A non-custodial wallet keeps the keys with you, so write its recovery phrase on paper and store it offline.

2. Match the network name before you send anything to the address. Bitcoin SV's code uses the same address prefix as Bitcoin's, so a BSV address can look exactly like an older Bitcoin address. Check that the platform and the wallet both say BSV.

3. Make sure the BSV on your screen is the cryptocurrency. The same three letters are the ticker of Vanguard's Short-Term Bond ETF, so a stock app that shows BSV is showing a bond fund.

4. Send a small test amount first and wait for it to arrive before you move the rest. A transfer to the wrong address or network can't be pulled back once the chain records it.

5. Move coins you plan to hold off the platform and into the wallet you control.

If you'd rather trade price moves in larger coins, Phemex's futures market covers Bitcoin and other majors. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses push its margin below a set minimum.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Bitcoin SV wallet should you use?

Use a wallet that names Bitcoin SV or BSV as a supported network, never one that lists only Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash. With a non-custodial wallet you hold the keys yourself. Its recovery phrase belongs offline, written down, and never in a photo or a chat.

Where can you buy BSV crypto?

Phemex doesn't offer BSV as a perpetual or as an order-book spot pair. If you use another platform, confirm it credits the BSV network itself, test with a small amount and withdraw what you keep to your own wallet.

How much is BSV worth?

Bitcoin SV closed early November at about $16.09 on CoinMarketCap's daily record, down about 3.6% on the day. That was a little steeper than the median fall of about 2.9% across Phemex's listed perpetuals on the same day.

What does SV stand for in Bitcoin SV?

SV stands for Satoshi Vision, after Satoshi Nakamoto, the name on Bitcoin's 2008 white paper. The coin's own code repository says Bitcoin SV will keep to the vision set out in that paper.

Bottom Line

BSV's supply calendar has almost run its course. The next halving trims new issuance from about 450 coins a day to about 225, a tiny flow next to the 20 million already out.

So the case for BSV rests on its other bet, that a Bitcoin-style chain with no practical block limit will one day fill its blocks with paying transactions. That use, far more than any halving date, is the thing to watch.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions