This morning (November 13, 2018), cryptocurrency giant Bitfinex announced that they would be opening trading for Chain Split Tokens (CST) to allow users to trade the two upcoming Bitcoin Cash forks before the chain split happens. They previously stated that they would be supporting both sides of the chain after the fork, but today it seems they’ve revised their plan.
The fork is scheduled to occur on November 15, 2018, at 4:40 PM UTC. To prepare for the hard fork, Bitfinex will suspend Bitcoin Cash (BCH) deposits and withdrawals starting on November 15 at 3:30 PM UTC. Regarding which fork will win, Bitfinex explains that:
Bitfinex will not advocate for or against any particular fork, and miners have full prerogative to commit their hashing power to whichever projects they choose. At the time of writing, we do not believe that there is sufficient consensus to identify a clear winner in the Bitcoin Cash hard fork.
Bitfinex is following in the footsteps of Poloniex, who started trading both Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV) and Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC) earlier last week. On both exchanges, trading is still available for the original BCH chain. When the chain split happens, users will be credited one BCHSV and one BCHABC for each BCH on their account.
The chain split tokens allows users to speculate on the price of each chain before the split happens. Right now on Poloniex, BCHABC is trading at $398 and BCHSV is priced at $134. This tells us that traders seem more confident in ABC than they are SV.
Although traders appreciate the chain split tokens on Bitfinex and Poloniex, some BCH supporters are not in favor of their existence. Craig Wright, leader of the Bitcoin Cash SV chain, claimed that trading of BCHSV before the chain was launched is a “criminal offense,” proclaiming:
@Poloniex
You do understand that allowing naked shorts and trades is a criminal offence in the US….When you lose, we will be there with the lawyers and pick the carcass dry.
— Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 10, 2018
Originally, Bitcoin Cash ABC was seen as the clear victor in this battle. ABC’s alignment with Roger Ver & Bitmain made it the favorite, but Bitcoin SV has seemed of late to be pulling ahead. After an interview with Tone Vays, Craig Wright unveiled that he owns the majority of the BCH hash rate, meaning his chain could come out on top.
