Disclaimer: At this point I want to say that I am not one to spread FUD, but this particular "rumor" really got to me, which is why I am writing this post. No one should base their decisions on this post, but rather do their own research before taking important decisions.
After BIP91 locked in and activated before BIP148 most people didn't even think that events such as a chain split would be possible, since the everyone (at that time) seemed to agree on the fact that this fork would only trigger if BIP148 was able to split the network.
Even though everything seemed to go through smoothly at first, "Bitcoin Cash" (BCC) got suddenly announced, raising a lot of eyebrows and questions. I have noticed that most people have only been asking questions such as "Is BTC safe on this and that exchange?" or "How can I get an equal amount of BCC (in order to make free money)?" The consensus seems to be "if you don't know what to do, just 'hodl' and you will be fine".
Virtually no one seems to be worried about possible long term damage of Bitcoin or even worse - a possible replacement event. Rumors are starting to arise that some of the most influential Chinese individuals and mining pools are secretly planning to make the emerging "Bitcoin Cash" the new leading cryptocurrency. If you think that this sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory - that's because it is a conspiracy theory. But we should be very careful and make sure that this does not turn out to be a real conspiracy other than just a theory.
I have noticed that a lot of people plan on dumping their "free BCC" as soon as they get it, since they believe that BCC has no future with such a strong BTC leading the market. But beware, the rumor says that this may just be part of the greater plan. If everyone starts dumping BCC the price will plummet, giving whales and above mentioned influential people a chance to accumulate a high number of BCC at a really low price. According to the rumor, the plan is to slowly turn Bitcoin Cash into the coin with the largest hashing power - and we should know that large Chinese mining pools would have the resources to make it happen. The end goal is supposed to be that of completely destroying the "old" Bitcoin - which will happen when old miners and whales will pull billions of dollars out of Bitcoin.
Even though I know that this event is really unlikely and would be incredibly difficult to pull off, I also realize that there are influential people endorsing Bitcoin Cash - directly and indirectly. It is also important to note that most major exchanges have announced that they will support BCC trading. What also made me think is the fact that I have read reports about BTC shorts being near ATH while there have been other reports of whales massively dumping hundreds of BTC these past few days.
Some may say that this is not proof - of course it isn't. As stated before, I am not presenting facts, I am posting about a rumor that may or may not become reality. If it actually turned out to be true it would be devastating for a lot of people who have their savings in Bitcoin - which is why I am warning everyone about this.
What can you do?
The most important thing is that you don't panic sell. If you you are holding Bitcoin and think that this might be a possible scenario, then the best thing you can do is simply holding both coins and (at least for a while) not selling the BCC you will get on August 1st. By having both coins you would make sure to be on the safer side, because even if one lost significant value in favor of the other, you would still have the valuable one left.
Again, this is just a warning, this is just a possible scenario. There is no source for this rumor other than anonymous posts on the internet. But I would rather be safe than sorry.
Make sure to share this post and/or share the news on this. The more people know, the less people will lose their money. Be careful during these days.