Those who held Ethereum suddenly had coins on both chains, effectively doubling the number of coins they held at the time; a similiar coin doubling will happen with Bitcoin next week.
You may think you're already aware of this upcoming Bitcoin Cash fork, but this fork is not related to the Segwit adoption that took place earilier this week.
Bitcoin Cash futures are currently trading at ~$500 on ViaBTC, this is a big deal. All Bitcoin private key holders will have a 1:1 ratio of Bitcoin Cash after the fork.
Bitcoin Cash will be forking from the Bitcoin blockchain on August 1st and all Bitcoin assets held at that time will be copied to the new chain. Therefore Bitcoins holders will have both Bitcoins (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCC).
This split does not come without worry though, many exchanges have begun to issue statements regarding this somewhat contentious landmark with Poloniex being the latest just this afternoon. You can check their full statement here.
Customers are being assured that funds will kept safe; it can be assumed that if BCC gains enough exchange support and traction it will be listed for trade and those exchanges will release the BCC they hold from their customers BTC at the point of the chain fork, but many exchanges like Coinbase have expressed they will not support BCC:
Q&A: Will Coinbase eventually support withdrawals for the UAHF version of Bitcoin?
We do not plan to offer support for the UAHF chain at this time.
Be sure to keep your funds safe and always stay proactive and up to date, friends.
Here are three ways to get the coins that are coming to you:
Place your BTC in your Trezor hardware wallet before the fork (if you have one) and update your firmware after the fork is completed
Or here's a guide to preventing coin loss during the fork using Electrum
If you prefer the non-technical approach, Bittrex is guaranteeing customers who BTC will receive BCC. This may be the only exchange who has outright stated the will make it 100% right and customers will get all of their coins. A solid option for small BTC amounts as Bittrex has a decent reputation within the crypto community.
We will continue to provide updates as this story matures so be sure to follow for the fastest up to date news you can run with!
