Fork Watch: Indian Bitcoin Exchanges Will Not Support 'Bitcoin Cash'
India’s top bitcoin exchanges have announced that they are either not supporting or have not planned to support “Bitcoin Cash,” the new cryptocurrency that is expected to result from a user-activated hard fork (UAHF) on August 1. The exchanges have also announced that they will be suspending bitcoin deposits and withdrawals during that time.
Also read: Indian Bitcoin Hotspot Bangalore Sees 50+ Merchants Added This Month
India has three major bitcoin exchanges; Zebpay, Unocoin and Coinsecure. All three have made announcements regarding Bitcoin Cash, as well as how each plans to suspend bitcoin services during the planned hard fork.
Zebpay
Zebpay
claims to be the biggest bitcoin exchange in India. Its app surpassed 500,000 Android downloads in May and ranked as the 7th most popular finance app in the Apple app store in June.
The company announced on Thursday that it will neither support Bitcoin Cash (BCC) nor its trading, stating that:
If you want access to Bitcoin Cash, please remove your bitcoins from your Zebpay wallet to a wallet in which you control the private keys on or before 31st July. Bitcoin Cash will not be available for customers who leave bitcoins in Zebpay.
In addition, the exchange is suspending bitcoin deposits and withdrawals from July 31 at 10 pm to August 2 at 10 am.
Unocoin
Unocoin
claims to be India’s most popular bitcoin company with a focus on merchant services. The platform reported having over 300,000 registered users and trading volume of more than 200 million INR each month.
The company announced last week its contingency plan for the hard fork. While the exchange will support the chain with the majority, it stated:
Unocoin has not planned or equipped to support other shorter and weaker chains if they pop up.
The company also announced a system maintenance of the site between July 30 and August 4 “to avoid any loss of customers’ coins via replay attacks and to choose the longer and safer chain to go with.” This period may be extended if necessary.
Coinsecure
Coinsecure
claims to be India’s fastest 24/7 real-time bitcoin trading platform. The company has announced that “to ensure the safety of customers’ funds, we will temporarily suspend BTC deposits, withdrawals, and buy/sell starting approximately 24 hours before activation of either fork.” In addition, the exchange stated:
If you do wish to have access to coins on the other forked chain or access your BTC during the fork, you should send your BTC from Coinsecure to your external address by July 30th.
What do you think about the standpoint Indian Exchanges are taking on Bitcoin Cash? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure
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