Bitcoin Cash [BCH]: Coinbase Starts Trading BCHABC as BCH; May not trade BCHSV

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has decided which path to take after the Nov. 15 split of the Bitcoin Cash [BCH] network and it involves the adoption of one side as the dominant chain.

Coinbase announced on Tuesday, Nov. 20 that will soon resume trading of Bitcoin Cash—adoption the Bitcoin Cash ABC as the Bitcoin Cash. It will, however, not list the BCH Satoshi Vision just yet or ever.

A Statement released on its website read:

“We have observed consensus in the community that the BCH ABC chain will retain the designation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Coinbase will also adopt this designation for BCH.”

Followers of the Bitcoin Cash anticipated a hotly contested hash battle after the network split following a hardfork last week. For long periods after the fork, Bitcoin Cash ABC chain led the Satoshi Vision side in the number of post-fork blocks mined. The ABC side consistently led in the percentage proof of work also.

Coinbase has now explained that it based its decision on the fact that Bitcoin Cash ABC has a higher hashrate and a longer proof-of-work chain.

The exchange further announced the resumption of trading of BCH Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime albeit on a limited basis while retail traders using the Coinbase.com platform and mobile applications will resume next week. However, deposits and withdrawals of BCH remain suspended until the exchange confirms that it is safe for its customers.

As regards the Bitcoin Cash SV, Coinbase did not make any mention of listing plans. There are no indications that Coinbase will consider trading of BSV (or BCHSV on some platforms) on its platform anytime soon. However, the announcement suggested it will allow BCH holders withdraw BSV tokens resulting from the fork on a later date.

Coinbase explained:

“Our current intention is to support withdrawal services for the BCH SV chain so that our customers may withdraw funds at a future date. We anticipate this development work will take at least a few weeks but may take longer.”

Coinbase will be following the lead of major exchanges like Huobi and Kraken to list Bitcoin Cash ABC as BCH. As Smartereum reported, Huobi also listed the SV chain token, but with the BSV ticker symbol. Kraken similarly retained ABC as BCH and listed SV as BSV although it noted that BSV didn’t meet its listing requirements and warned users of red flags with the token.

On the other hand Bitcoin and OKEx, the two biggest crypto exchanges by transaction volume, have not retained any chai and the dominant BCH electing to list both chains with new ticker symbols BCHABC and BCHSV. While OKEx kept open the possibility of changing one ticker to BCH after feedback from the ecosystem, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is adamant there will be no ticker changes as Binance has delisted the old Bitcoin Cash for good.

As major crypto exchanges are adopting ABC as the Bitcoin Cash and assigning it the BCH ticker symbol, it appears they have won the so-called ‘hash war’. This perceived victory comes at a steep cost to the supporting miners and the entire crypto community at large.

BCH advocate Roger Ver, who is in support of the ABC side tweeted about the hash war recently. He wrote, “No one wins a war. Some just lose less than others.” As Smartereum reported, research experts at Bifinex tracking the hardfork released data that showed both sides of the fork were mining at significant loses in other to win the hash war. ABC miners were, at the time were, losing a total of $439,221 daily as estimated. SV miners were also losing an estimated total of $278,000.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

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