GMO Coin, a Japan-based exchange, has decided to restart Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trading after the hard fork that happened over two weeks ago. However, there’s a catch. Unlike many exchanges who list both forks, GMO Coin has decided only to list the Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC, BCH on most exchanges) coin on their exchange. BCH trading has been paused since the fork but will start again tomorrow morning with their BCH/JPY trading pair.
GMO, a Japanese mining hardware manufacturer, mining operation, and exchange company, started their exchange last year, and reportedly processed $781 million in trading volume in the third quarter of 2018. GMO Internet started mining in September 2017, and has been slowly expanding into the cryptocurrency space.
An exclusive report on Finance Magnates explains GMO Coin’s decision, which contains a quote from a GMO Coin spokesperson saying:
In our company, the one shown as BCH indicates a Bitcoin Cash called BCHABC.
Despite this quote, there was no definite reason given as to why GMO Coin decided to list only BCHABC. It could be that the exchanges are worried about the stability of the chain. It may, on the other hand, have been a political decision.
While GMO decided to take sides in the fight, many of the rival cryptocurrency exchanges played neutral. Binance, Bittrex, and Poloniex all distributed both tokens and have markets for both chains. GMO’s plan is similar to that of Coinbase, who previously announced that they will continue trading BCHABC with the ticker symbol BCH. Coinbase users will be able to retrieve their BCHSV tokens “at a future date.”
Amongst all the ticker drama, there’s been price problems with Bitcoin Cash as well. The entire cryptocurrency space has dropped in price since the fork, but BCH continues to have irregular trading patterns. BCHSV oddly skyrocketed 88% in 24 hours, which some suspect to be a side effect of Binance wallet maintenance.
