For the first time in months, the price of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has seen significant upwards price movement from $425 to a current high of $586. This signals a price movement of over 25% — however, at the time of writing, the price has receded to $545.
Overall though, this recent upwards movement is holding strong and can be attributed to the upcoming BCH fork. Here’s why.
Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork on November 15
BCH’s recent rise in price largely be attributed to the Bitcoin Cash hard fork set to occur on November 15. The BCH hard fork will result in 2 independent BCH blockchains, and therefore 2 different BCH coins.
This has led cryptocurrency traders and investors to buy BCH before the fork date so that they can benefit from the additional coins they’ll receive after the fork.
As seen before with Bitcoin (BTC), there was a divide in the community on whether or not to increase the block size. This lack of consensus resulted in a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, which then gave birth to Bitcoin Cash.
Now, the BCH community is facing a similar situation.
Twice a year, the Bitcoin Cash blockchain undergoes a hard fork which integrates scheduled protocol upgrades. Most of the time, these hard fork upgrades go unnoticed and the BCH blockchain continues on.
This time however, the BCH community has become divided and failed to come to consensus regarding the future of the BCH blockchain.
NChain, a blockchain group led by “Satoshi-want-to-be,” Craig Wright, does not agree with the upgrades proposed by Bitcoin ABC, a Bitcoin Cash-centric developer coalition.
Therefore, NChain has decided to run its own upgrade to the BCH blockchain which will result in the creation of 2 independent blockchains on November 15.
Binance and Coinbase Announce Support for the BCH Hard Fork
Due to the uncertainty of BCH’s future, 2 of the most prominent crypto exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, have announced their plans to support the potential forked BCH.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto-to-crypto exchange, was the first exchange to announce support for the upcoming BCH hard fork. They stated that they will suspend BCH deposits and withdrawals 1 – 2 hours before the hard fork is expected.
Coinbase, America’s crypto startup valued at $8 billion, has also announced their decision to support the impending hard fork in a Coinbase support post:
We will pause sends and receives on the BCH wallets at Coinbase.com, in our iOS and Android apps, and at Coinbase Pro and Prime beginning at 8:00AM PST on 11/15/2018 (approximately 1 hour before the fork). Please be sure all BCH sends and receives are completed prior to that time.
Something we found to be quite interesting is that Coinbase assured their customers that they will be facilitating the trading of the forked BCH. Binance, on the other hand, has not announced whether or not they will facilitate the forked BCH.
What do you think of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork? Are you stocking up on BCH before the fork? Tell us in the comment section below.
