How Japanese Exchanges prepare to Deal with Forked Bitcoin Cash

 The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association has issued an announcement regarding Bitcoin Cash (BCC), which it expects to result from a planned hard fork on August 1. Some of its 13 bitcoin exchange members have already issued preliminary notices detailing how they will deal with the upcoming cryptocurrency. 

JCBA’s Plans for Bitcoin Cash

The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association (JCBA) released its plan on Friday regarding how it will deal with the planned hard fork on August 1. The association currently has 13 members that are bitcoin exchanges. All of them have already agreedto suspend bitcoin deposits and withdrawals on that date. The JCBA wrote:

With this hard fork, it is planned that existing blockchains will continue to handle bitcoins, while newly formed blockchains will handle a new virtual currency scheduled to be named ‘Bitcoin Cash’ (BCC).

A bitcoin exchange member of the association, Bit Trade, described that “The BCC hard fork is scheduled for August 1 (Tue) 21: 20 (JST).”The JCBA explained that, with the newly formed blockchain, an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash to each customer’s existing bitcoin holdings will be generated. The association added that each bitcoin exchange in the group will decide for themselves how to deal with Bitcoin Cash belonging to their customers.Some exchanges will not be trading BCC and customers of those exchanges will have to transfer them to another exchange that does, the association advised, adding that (loosely translated):

It may be difficult to receive and pay using Bitcoin Cash in derivative transactions…In this case, we may liquidate it by sending and receiving money for the equivalent amount. For specific handling information, please confirm with the exchange member that deals with you.

Exchanges’ Preliminary Notices on Bitcoin Cash

Some bitcoin exchange members of the association have independently made their own announcements concerning how they plan to deal with Bitcoin Cash. However, so far, little information has been offered by each exchange.Bitpoint wrote that they intend to “deal with the newly generated Bitcoin Cash including trading transactions.”Bit Trade has stated its policies in more detail. “When the Bitcoin Cash fork splits bitcoin into two coins, we will give the full number of coins same as BTC held by customer at the time of suspension, after August 2.” After that date, customers can withdraw money as well as trade the BCC/JPY or BCC/BTC trading pairs on the exchange.Coincheck wrote only that “we will consider how we cope with Bitcoin Cash hard fork after confirming the situation in detail.”GMO-Z Coin similarly announced, “regarding the handling policy for ‘Bitcoin Cash’, we will inform you on our site and via email by August 1.”Tokyo Bitcoin Exchange wrote that “as for the plan to handle Bitcoin Cash transactions, we will not decide at the present time.” However, the exchange will aid individual customers with the withdrawals of the new coins.What do you think will happen on August 1?