Here’s What to Do if You Had Bitcoin Cash on Top Crypto Exchanges Before the Fork 19/11/2018
Amid all the confusion around the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, one of the biggest issues is dealing with coins that are left the cryptocurrency exchanges. Here’s how the top exchanges have handled the situation.
As announced on their blog, Binance has distributed Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC) and Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV) to their users, and has opened up trading for both pairs on its platform.
Users who held Bitcoin Cash (ticker symbol BCC on Binance, BCH on others) on Binance were distributed 1 BCHABC and 1 BCHSV for each BCC on the exchange. BCC balances were based on a snapshot taken of user wallets two days ago, on November 15th, 2018, at 4:40 PM UTC (the time of the chain split).
Binance follows other exchanges as the support for the BCH hard fork continues. The first exchange to split the tokens was Poloniex, which launched split tokens a week before the chain split. Taking cues from Poloniex, Bitfinex also issued “Chain Split Tokens,” which allowed users to trade both sides of the fork before the hard fork happened. Binance took a more precautionary path and decided to wait until after the chain split to distribute tokens.
On the other hand, some exchanges still haven’t split the tokens yet.
Most notably is Coinbase, one of the largest exchanges in the United States, which has not split the chain. The morning of the hard fork, Coinbase tweeted that they will be pausing BCH activity on their exchange: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) sends, receives, buys and sells are now paused. Please follow @CoinbaseSupport for further BCH fork updates.
— Coinbase (@coinbase) November 15, 2018
As of today, there have been no updates from Coinbase as to which tokens they will list. They did mention in a blog post that: “If another viable chain exists, customers will have the ability to withdraw funds at a future date.
We anticipate this will take at least a few weeks, but may take longer.”
This hints that users with funds on Coinbase could be waiting a while to receive their forked coins. With past chain splits, like ETH & ETC, BTC & BCH, Coinbase took weeks to months to distribute forked coins, to the dismay of many users
Bittrex took another stance. A day before the fork, the exchange announced that it would be closing BCH activity temporarily, and that “Bittrex will observe the Bitcoin Cash network for a period of 24 to 48 hours to determine if a chain split has occurred and the outcome.” Now that the fork is over, it appears BCHABC has won the ticker symbol on Bittrex. The firm tweeted out: Update: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) deposits and withdrawals are now open.
Confirmations have been temporarily increased to 20 for deposits. Bitcoin SV (BSV) balances are in accounts. https://t.
co/EIcqG4pu6N
— Bittrex (@BittrexExchange) November 17, 2018
This means that BCHABC will remain trading under BCH. It also shows that users will be able to claim their BCHSV, however as of this publication, BCHSV is not tradeable on Bittrex and ABC is trading under “Bitcoin Cash (ABC).”
Lastly, HitBTC was a supporter of both chains. Like Poloniex, HitBTC previously allowed trading of both chains prior to the fork. During the fork, deposits and withdrawals were paused, but trading of both chains began again “after the fork is completed and the network is stabilized.
” However, caution is advised with HitBTC, as traders have reported of problems with deposits and withdrawals
Kraken, another popular cryptocurrency exchange, revealed it’s trading Bitocin Cash ABC under the BCH ticker while responding to one user one microblogging platform Twitter. Hello thegreimor, the BCH ticker symbol on Kraken now refers to the Bitcoin ABC chain of Bitcoin Cash. All current balances of BCH now represent tokens on the Bitcoin ABC chain.
— Kraken Support (@krakensupport) November 17, 2018
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