As the dust begins to settle from last week’s Bitcoin Cash hard fork, crypto exchanges are now signaling which version will receive the “BCH” ticker symbol, as well as to what extent and on what terms they will support the other blockchain.
US crypto exchange Kraken, like the majority of other BCH trading platforms, has elected to list Bitcoin ABC’s BCH implementation under the “bitcoin cash” label while also opening trading markets for Bitcoin SV (BSV) — the chain launched by Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre through their respective crypto companies, nChain and CoinGeek.
However, Kraken included a lengthy disclaimer in the announcement, stating that BSV is “extremely high risk” and does not meet the exchange’s usual listing requirements.
“WARNING: Bitcoin SV does NOT meet Kraken’s usual listing requirements. It should be seen as an extremely high risk investment. There are many red flags that traders should be aware of,” the post read, before listing a litany of reasons why investors should only purchase BSV with eyes wide open:
- No known wallets supporting replay protection (be careful!)
- No support in major block explorers
- Miners apparently subsidized or operating at a loss
- Representatives threatening and openly hostile toward other chains
- Chain’s survival may be mutually exclusive with other chains
- Supply is temporarily constrained because of limited wallet support
- Some large holders have indicated they’d be dumping everything ASAP
- Kraken has done only very minimal code review
Further still, the San Francisco-based crypto exchange noted that BSV partisans have threatened to attack BSV holders who use or otherwise provide support for the other chain. If that happens, the post warned, the exchange would “socialize” losses among all BSV holder on Kraken, which is particularly noteworthy since users cannot currently withdraw BSV into user-controlled wallets.
“Custodial losses taken on due to attacks originating from nChain or its affiliates will be socialized among all BSV holders on Kraken. Given the volatile state of the network and threats that have been made, Kraken cannot guarantee perfect custody of BSV.”
As of the time of writing, bitcoin cash (whether listed under BCH or an “IOU” symbol such as BCHABC) was trading at a 165 percent premium to BSV, while the latter’s markets had been more heavily traded.
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