When Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created from a fork of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2017, both coins shared the same address format. BCH developers proposed a new format for BCH addresses, called CashAddr. This was to eliminate any confusion among users of the two digital currencies. The new BCH address format made it easier to distinguish between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash addresses. This new BCH format did not change the BCH private or public keys, only how the BCH addresses will be displayed.
It’s not possible to send BTC to a BCH CashAddr address as the two are incompatible, but every BCH address has a “legacy” address, which is the corresponding Bitcoin address and it is possible to send BTC to a BCH address by mistake.
If the BCH address you’ve sent your BTC to belongs to an exchange you need to contact them and provide the transaction details, they may be able to reverse the transaction for you.
If you own the BCH address that you’ve sent the BTC too and the BCH private key you will be able to recover your funds by importing your private key into a Bitcoin wallet such as Electrum.
Get the Electrum wallet here: https://electrum.org/
If you’ve lost coins by sending them to the wrong address we can probably help you recover them – please complete the form and we’ll get back to you.
