diff --git a/benchmark_test.go b/benchmark_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a60f8b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package cid_test
+
+import (
+	"github.com/ipfs/go-cid"
+	"github.com/multiformats/go-multihash"
+	"math/rand"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// BenchmarkIdentityCheck benchmarks checking whether a CIDv1 has multihash.IDENTITY
+// code via two methods: 1) Cid.Prefix() and 2) decoding the Cid.Hash().
+func BenchmarkIdentityCheck(b *testing.B) {
+	rng := rand.New(rand.NewSource(1413))
+	cv1 := generateCidV1(b, rng, multihash.IDENTITY)
+
+	b.SetBytes(int64(cv1.ByteLen()))
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	b.ResetTimer()
+
+	b.Run("Prefix", func(bb *testing.B) {
+		bb.RunParallel(func(pb *testing.PB) {
+			for pb.Next() {
+				if cv1.Prefix().MhType != multihash.IDENTITY {
+					b.Fatal("expected IDENTITY CID")
+				}
+			}
+		})
+	})
+
+	b.Run("MultihashDecode", func(bb *testing.B) {
+		bb.RunParallel(func(pb *testing.PB) {
+			for pb.Next() {
+				dmh, err := multihash.Decode(cv1.Hash())
+				if err != nil {
+					b.Fatal(err)
+				}
+				if dmh.Code != multihash.IDENTITY {
+					b.Fatal("expected IDENTITY CID")
+				}
+			}
+		})
+	})
+}
+
+func generateMultihash(b *testing.B, rng *rand.Rand, mhCode uint64) multihash.Multihash {
+	// Generate random data to hash.
+	data := make([]byte, rng.Intn(100)+1024)
+	if _, err := rng.Read(data); err != nil {
+		b.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// Generate multihash from data.
+	mh, err := multihash.Sum(data, mhCode, -1)
+	if err != nil {
+		b.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return mh
+}
+
+func generateCidV1(b *testing.B, rng *rand.Rand, mhCode uint64) cid.Cid {
+	mh := generateMultihash(b, rng, mhCode)
+	return cid.NewCidV1(cid.Raw, mh)
+}