USDCNH definition

USD/CNH is the exchange rate between the US dollar and the offshore Chinese renminbi, showing how many offshore renminbi one US dollar will buy. The renminbi is one of the world's most actively traded currencies, though the bulk of that turnover runs through the onshore USD/CNY market (about 8% of daily forex turnover in the BIS Triennial Survey, 2025); CNH is the offshore version of the same currency, traded freely outside mainland China, and it carries deep liquidity of its own. There is no widely used nickname for the pair.

The US dollar is the base currency and the offshore renminbi the quote currency, so a quote of 7.2000 means one US dollar is worth 7.2000 offshore renminbi. A rising price means the dollar is strengthening against the renminbi, a falling price the reverse. You trade USD/CNH as a forex CFD, taking a position on the price rather than exchanging currency outright: go long if you expect the dollar to rise, short if you expect it to fall. Moves are counted in pips, the fourth decimal place, and your result is the pips gained or lost multiplied by your position size.

What sets USD/CNH apart is the role of the People's Bank of China, which steers the currency through a daily fixing and active management rather than leaving it fully to the market. China's growth, trade balance and capital flows drive the trend, while the gap between the freely traded offshore CNH and the more tightly controlled onshore CNY can itself widen or narrow as sentiment shifts.