Bitcoin Cash Fork: Exchanges split coins, Binance trading goes live

Exchanges are beginning to look to get back to normal after the Bitcoin Cash hard fork which occurred yesterday.

Despite continued warnings from the Bitcoin SV side of the battle, it would appear that some of larger crypto exchanges are preparing to declare the outcome Bitcoin Cash fork decided. In the eyes of at least two major trading platforms, BCH is now two separate coins – Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV.

Binance has announced that it has split the coins held in its wallets into the two respective currencies, and that trading will restart at 8am this morning UET. In a statement it said:

“BCHABC [Bitcoin ABC] and BCHSV [Satoshi Vision] balances were each distributed to users in a ratio of 1 BCC = 1 BCHABC and 1 BCC = 1 BCHSV, based on the snapshot of all Bitcoin Cash (BCC) balances taken at 2018/11/15 4:40:00 PM (UTC).

“Binance will open trading for new BCHABC/BTC, BCHABC/USDT, BCHSV/BTC and BCHSV/USDT trading pairs at 2018/11/16 8:00 AM (UTC). All prior BCC balances have been removed from user accounts and all BCC trading pairs have been delisted from the exchange.”

It, however, will not allow deposits and withdrawals until “we deem the blockchains and wallets to be usable and stable.”

BitFinex has gone through the same procedure, but has – as yet – made no announcement as to when its markets will reopen, nor to which side it will be attributing the now vacated BCH ticker symbol.

BAB and BSV have been successfully credited to Bitfinex users and BCH positions have been claimed. The BCH symbol will not be assigned until the fork is complete.

— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) November 15, 2018

Coinbase has not yet notified its users regarding a split of their coins, nor which currency it will deem to be BCH,  simply saying via its support channel that it is monitoring the situation and network conditions.

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork is in progress. We will continue to monitor network conditions before re-enabling sends, receives, buys and sells of BCH.

— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) November 15, 2018

Due to the fact its BAB and BSV markets remained open throughout the whole fork process – with withdrawals and deposits suspended – Poloniex became a major source of information regarding the relative values of the two coins in the run-up and immediate fallout of the fork last night. The Circle-owned crypto exchange’s tickers for the two coins has since shown a marked divergence between the two over the last day or so.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin ABC trading seemed to have evened out at around $275…

While Bitcoin SV’s price has receded to around the $75-mark 

Another interesting point is the massive spread the market is placing on both BAB and SV, as the order books for both show, while there is speculative interest in both of the coins, there’s not a lot of trading happening around the current spot prices. This is the Market Depth for ABC, showing that there is no real interest in buying the crypto (green side) until the price gets down to $100 – with people looking to really begin taking profits around the $400.

SV’s chart (below) is similar, though the spread is tighter based on the lower price. $50 dollars and $90 dollars appear to be the current popular buy/sell points right now.

The relative decline in both the cryptos prices – which, aggregated, is now around $75 per coin below what BCH was previously worth – compared to the amount of mining power being thrown at the respective currencies in the immediate aftermath of the split, means that both sides will have operated at a considerable loss so far. While mining hash rate has tailed of since the initial burst unleashed by both sides, should any further skirmishes ensue, the pair either risk losing miners tired of taking losses, or having to further subsidise their activities in order to pursue their goals.

On one side of that equation is Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre – the latter a confirmed billionaire and owner of the CoinGeek mining concern. On the other is Bitcoin/BCH evangelist, Roger Ver, and Jihan Wu of Bitmain – both men with, presumably, deep pockets. Whether one will be forced to blink because of the costs of keeping up the fight, further down the line – or whether one of the sides resorts to less civilised tactics than a straight-up ‘Hash Battle’ – will be something to look out for. The hints are that this may not be over just yet, however.

While many commentators have noted the ‘lead’ taken by Bitcoin ABC in terms of blocks mined, nodes using its protocol, and general acceptance within the BCH ecosystem, Craig Wright – one of the leading players behind ‘Satoshi Vision’ (SV) – is not ready to throw in the towel on becoming the One True Bitcoin Cash yet.

He has consistently voiced his intention to take down the opposing chain in a sustained Hash War. Now, despite seeming unable being able to compete with the hash power deployed by Bitcoin.com in support of ABC, which at the time of writing has mined 49 block more to its new chain that Bitcoin SV, according to <a href=”https://cash.coin.dance/”>Coin.dance</a> and seems will in the ascendency – he shows no signs of giving up the fight.

A reminder, hash competitions are a marathon, not a sprint.

Never look st victory too soon…. pic.twitter.com/GFdCR4J2RA

— Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 15, 2018

Thus, for a while, exchanges may let users trade their new coins, but it may be a while before they can place them in their own wallets. Indeed, SV itself has sought to warn exchanges and holders of coins not to split until a dominant chain emerges. It would seem that exchanges have decided that this split is permanent on behalf of their users, but should that not be the case, the fallout could be highly contentious.