Fork Watch: Korean Bitcoin Exchanges Divided on ‘Bitcoin Cash’

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Bitcoin exchanges in South Korea have been preparing for the planned user-activated hard fork (UAHF) on August 1. Some have announced their support for Bitcoin Cash (BCC), the new cryptocurrency that is expected to result from the event, while others have not yet decided.

Also read: South Korea Legalizes Bitcoin International Transfers, Challenging Traditional Banks

The South Korean won is currently the third-most traded currency for bitcoin worldwide behind the Japanese yen and the US dollar, according to Coinhills. As bitcoin exchanges worldwide prepare to deal with the possible upcoming UAHF and the resulting Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency, bitcoin exchanges in South Korea have also clarified their positions.

Bithumb

The largest bitcoin exchange by volume in South Korea, Bithumb, is one of the first exchanges to announce its support for Bitcoin Cash. The platform has approximately 75.7 percent market share of the domestic market, according to the Korea Herald. The exchange has announced that “during the forks, from 2017-07-31 00AM to 2017-08-07, we will suspend bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. And Bithumb is not responsible for any desposits (transactions) during those period.” In addition, the exchange expects to list BCC on August 3, adding that:

Bithumb supports BCC and users can get BCC at 1:1 ratio with bitcoin. BCC Withdrawal will be available after August 7 and the date is changeable due to circumstances.

Korbit

South Korea’s second largest bitcoin exchange Korbit, with 17.6 percent market share, announced that “we will be halting all bitcoin deposits and withdrawals several hours before the UASF event.” The suspension “may last a day to several days,” the exchange advised. Customers wanting to access their bitcoins soon afterward must withdraw them before August 1. The suspension will be lifted once Korbit believes the Bitcoin network has become stable.

In addition, Korbit stated, “we will stop buy orders of the other digital assets (Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, etc.) when we halt bitcoin deposits and withdrawals, and we will stop sell orders for a short period before and after the UAHF.” As for Bitcoin Cash support, the exchange stated:

In the event that Bitcoin Cash gains traction, we may enable Bitcoin Cash trading, within a few days after the UAHF, if and when we deem it safe to do so. If we do, we plan to allocate to our users Bitcoin Cash at a 1:1 ratio with Bitcoin based on users’ Bitcoin balance at the time of the UAHF

Coinone

The third largest bitcoin exchange in South Korea with 6.7 percent market share, Coinone, announced that bitcoin deposits and withdrawals were suspended from July 28 at 6pm. Customers wanting to trade immediately after the hard fork needed to have withdrawn their bitcoin by that date and time. The exchange added:

Coinone has not yet decided whether or not to support BCC officially. We will consider whether to support BCC in consideration of technical issues and the bitcoin ecosystem in the future.

Coinplug and Coinnest

Bitcoin broker and exchange platform Coinplug announced on Friday that it is suspending bitcoin deposits and withdrawals on July 30 at 0:00 KST. Services will be resumed once the exchange feels that the network has stabilized.

“After the UAHF hard fork we will monitor BCC carefully and once we feel that BCC is safe and gains noticeable traction within the community we may enable BCC trading at our exchange,” Coinplug wrote. “If we do decide on BCC trading, you will be allocated an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash at a 1:1 ratio with bitcoin based on your bitcoin balance at the time of the UAHF hard fork.”

The smaller bitcoin exchange Coinnest also announced its support for Bitcoin Cash. The exchange has posted a notice on its website stating that customers holding bitcoin in a Coinnest wallet at midnight on July 31 “will receive the same amount of BCC” as bitcoin.

Do you think all bitcoin exchanges in South Korea should support Bitcoin Cash? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bithumb, Korbit, Coinone, Coinplug

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