How Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Resolving The Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

The answer depends on the cryptocurrency exchange you happened to trust your Bitcoin Cash belongings to. We scanned official statements from some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges to get a clear picture of what’s going on with Bitcoin Cash and its offsprings in this “post-fork” market.

Both Coins Are Created Equal…

Several large exchanges assigned Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV with new tickers and resumed trading. Deposit and withdrawals are still suspended at most of the venues

Poloniex

This US-based cryptocurrency exchange disabled the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ticker and converted users balances to Bitcoin ABC (BCHABC) and Bitcoin SV (BCHSV) coins on November. While users have access to trading services for both coins produced by the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, deposits and withdrawals are still paused. According to the announcement made in the official Twitter account, the company is waiting until the market stabilizes before unlocking the full functionality of Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV.

We’ve finished converting all BCH balances to BCHABC and BCHSV. The BCH market is now disabled. BCHABC/BTC, BCHSV/BTC, BCHABC/USDC, and BCHSV/USDC markets are open. Deposits and withdrawals of BCHABC and BCHSV are still paused, and will remain paused until the networks stabilize.

— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) November 15, 2018

Kraken

Kraken assigned the BCH ticker to Bitcoin ABC and credited all accounts that held BCH prior to the fork with the equivalent amount of Bitcoin SV (BSV). The exchange resumed trading with both coins as of No 19, though funding and withdrawal services are still on hold. According to a Twitter announcement, the company may unlock the full functionality later this week. Kraken added support for the Bitcoin SV (BSV) protocol with a warning that it does not meet listing requirements. The company mentioned several red flags, including missing replay protection support, hostile behavior of the chain representative and alleged miner bribing. Kraken urges users to be extremely cautious while dealing with Bitcoin SV and promises to socialize the custodial losses among BSV holders on Kraken in case of chain attack. Bitcoin SV is available for trading against Bitcoin (BTC), USD and the euro.

Accounts holding Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prior to the Nov 15th fork have been credited with Bitcoin SV (BSV). Trading is now open. Funding is still being evaluated and may come later this week. https://t.co/l2orqED6gO

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) November 18, 2018

Huobi

Huobi took a snapshot of users accounts at 00:40 (GMT+8), Nov 16, 2018, and distributed Bitcoin SV (BSV) coin to BCH holders on a 1:1 basis. The trading services for the new coin has been available on Huobi platform since Sunday, Nov 18; however, deposits and withdrawal functionality is still suspended. Notably, Bitcoin ABC is trading under the BCH ticker as the company considers it a legitimate successor to Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin ABC deposit services were supposed to be relaunched on Nov 19, but the exchange delayed it until further notice. According to a press release, Huobi needs time to test network stability and to make sure that everything works smoothly before it re-opens withdrawal services for both BCH and BSV.

.@BitcoinCash (BCH) deposit service, which was originally scheduled to open at 14:00 (Singapore time) on November 19, 2018 has been postponed. The new opening time will be announced in a separate update. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.https://t.co/vZZ2nFFmKn$BCH pic.twitter.com/tXlCrOkGoJ

— HTX (@HTX_Global) November 19, 2018

…But One Coin is More Equal Than Others

Some trading platforms consider Bitcoin ABC to be the true Bitcoin Cash and have assigned it the BCH ticker. All the following venues distributed Bitcoin SV tokens to BCH holders and enabled trading services for the new coin.

Bittrex

Bittrex decided to assign the BCH ticker to Bitcoin ABC chain before the fork. The company also credited BCH user accounts with BSV tokens in the amount equal to their BCH holdings at the time of the network snapshot taken on Nov 15, 2018, at 8:40 am PT (4:40 pm UTC). Bitcoin ABC (under the BCH ticker) deposits and withdrawals have been enabled since Nov 17, while Bitcoin SV functionality (under the BSV ticker) was made available since Nov 19. Confirmations for both coins are set to 20 for deposits. Meanwhile, Bittrex does not support cross-chain deposits, which means traders cannot exchange BCH to BSV. The company urges traders to be cautious as there is no replay protection.

Note: Bitcoin SV (BSV) deposits & withdrawals are now open. Confirmations have been temporarily set to 20 for deposits. Cross chain deposits to the BCH/BSV chain will NOT be credited. Please use caution when sending BCH/BSV as there is no replay protection https://t.co/EIcqG4pu6N

— Bittrex (@BittrexExchange) November 19, 2018

Binance

Binance took a snapshot of all Bitcoin Cash balances (BCC on Binance) at Nov 15, 4:40 PM (UTC) and distributed the Bitcoin ABC (BCHABC) and Bitcoin SV (BCHSV) coins to all eligible users on Nov 16 in the ratio of 1:1 — meaning users got one BCHABC and one BCHSV for each Bitcoin Cash coin held on their accounts at the time of the snapshot. Binance did not find it appropriate to give the old ticker to either of the new coins — presumably because BCC is more commonly known as the ticket for defunct Ponzi scheme Bitconnect. Currently, Binance users can trade BCHABC and BCHSV but deposits and withdrawals are still suspended. There have been no further updates as of yet.

#Binance Has Distributed Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC), Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV) and Will Open Tradinghttps://t.co/Ex5YmLkspH pic.twitter.com/UAv1VYVzVd

— Binance (@binance) November 16, 2018

OKEx

OkEx distributed BCHABC and BCHSV based on a snapshot taken on Nov 16, 5:35am-5: 40 am (CET) and resumed trading for both coins against Tether (USDT), USD, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and OKB (proprietary token of the exchange) as of Nov 19. Currently, OkEx users can deposit into their BCHABC and BCHSV accounts, though withdrawal services will be made available later. The company promises to protect users assets from a replay attack. Apart from that, OkEx changed BCH futures specifications ahead of the fork, which resulted in early delivery for some contracts and caused massive losses for traders.

DEPOSITING OF BCHABC AND BCHSV AVAILABLE: We already opened the depositing of BCHABC and BCHSV. Please rest assured that no replay attack will come to your assets. The withdrawal of BCHABC and BCHSV will be available soon. #OKExAnnouncementhttps://t.co/YTpvfjsiVo

— OKX (@okx) November 19, 2018

Not So Fast!

Five days past, but some exchanges are still keeping their users guessing.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex, one of the world’s leading platforms for trading digital assets, has not officially clarified its approach towards the chains resulted from Bitcoin Cash blockchain split. However, the company credited user accounts with BAB and BSV tokens after the fork and unlocked trading services for both coins. According to the latest announcement, Bittfinex may decide on assigning BCH ticker to one of the coins when the fork is deemed complete. This section was updated with current news as of 21/11/2018

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

The largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange suspended Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trading services and froze the accounts on Nov 15. Users are advised to follow the Coinbase Support Twitter account for further updates on BCH hardfork; however, there is no fresh news from the support team as of yet. The company says that Bitcoin Cash will stay offline until it is confident that the dust has settled and the network is stable. It remains to be seen whether the exchange will re-designate the BCH ticker to one of the new coins or take the Binance approach, where both coins trade under new tickers.

We continue to monitor network conditions during the ongoing Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork. Sends, receives, buys and sells of BCH will remain offline until we are confident in the stability and security of the network, at which point we will provide additional updates.

— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) November 16, 2018

BitPay

BitPay has temporarily paused Bitcoin Cash payment processing for today’s BCH hard fork. The exchange announced that Bitcoin Cash payment processing would be halted ahead of BCH hard fork to protect users’ funds. The trading, deposit, and withdrawal functions are not available at the time of writing. While there were some speculations about BitPay using the BCH ticker for Bitcoin ABC, BitPay representatives have not confirmed this information.

BitPay has temporarily paused Bitcoin Cash payment processing for today's BCH hard fork. Learn more: https://t.co/JznbqJrSfj

— BitPay (@BitPay) November 15, 2018

Bitstamp

The UK-based Bitstamp is in the undecided camp. The cryptocurrency exchange halted Bitcoin Cash trading and suspended all account activities ahead of the fork on Nov 15. They remain offline for now with no clear information about when the trading may be resumed. According to the comments from Bitstamp’s representatives under the announcement tweet, BCH trading will remain unavailable until further notice.

BCH FORK: Bitcoin Cash deposits and withdrawals have been halted at Bitstamp and may remain unavailable for some time, depending on how the situation unfolds.

— Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) November 15, 2018

What exchange did you keep your Bitcoin Cash stored on before the hardfork? Did you keep yours in a private wallet? Have you had any issues? Let us know in the comments below! After you do that, why don’t you take a look at our honest Bitstamp review?