European-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC has announced the ability to purchase Bitcoin Cash futures (BCCF), even before any hard fork takes place. Trading pairs of Bitcoin Cash versus BTC, ETH, and USD have now been available. Once the hard fork takes place, HitBTC will convert these futures directly into BCC.
HitBTC repeated to customers that those who store BTC on their accounts will receive the same amount of BCC. The company re-assures users that all bitcoin funds stored on the exchange will be safe before, during, and after the fork process.
US dollar-denominated BCCF futures on HitBTC are currently trading at $900 or 0.31 BTC. The market has been open for less than 24-hours.
The HitBTC team said:
“Since the Bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP 91) had been agreed on, it seemed like Bitcoin crisis is averted and the market-shaking fork won’t take place. Bitcoin development community decided to embrace the software upgrade called SegWit2x, which aims to increase network’s transaction capacity.”
“But it turns out that still there are controversies left to resolve. BitcoinCash (BCC) development team had announced that they will go ahead with a fork on August 1st. The essence of their project is to increase the block size to 8 Mb, providing protection from replay and wipe out attacks. And they do not support SegWit. A hard fork is extremely likely to expect.”
HitBTC’s official stance on the issues is below (released on July 26th):
- HitBTC says they stand for SegWit activation. The company believes that planned changes and improvements will receive strong community support and result in technical efficiency and prosperity. HitBTC says they hope that all the negative scenarios, political issues, and malicious acts will stay on the sidelines and the Bitcoin community will make a weighted and appropriate decision.
- Customers’ fund’s security is its highest priority. As such, the company will be suspending Bitcoin and its tokens USDT, MAID and AMP deposits and withdrawals from July 31st till August 2nd to protect users from replay attacks and network instability. The timing may vary, but the exchange will keep users informed regarding any updates.
- If there are no chain splits and the Bitcoin blockchain functions properly, HitBTC will accordingly resume deposits and withdrawals.
- Even if the UAHF happens, HitBTC will take all of the necessary technical steps to support the new blockchain. The exchange will fund every Bitcoin holder with the newly born asset.
- For the sake of customer assets security, HitBTC is advising to limit the number of Bitcoin transfers and to keep funds in one place. HitBTC pledged to clients that all Bitcoin holdings on the exchange will be safe during the uncertainty of a potential chain fork.