Two South Korean Bitcoin Exchanges Announce Hard Fork Plans

Two South Korean bitcoin exchanges, Coinone and Coinnest, have announced their policies regarding the upcoming hard forks of the Bitcoin network. The Segwit2x hard fork is planned for November and the Bitcoin Gold hard fork is scheduled for October 25.

Also read: Preparing for the Bitcoin Hard Forks: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Coinone’s Policies

South Korea’s second-largest bitcoin exchange Coinone announced its general policies regarding blockchain hard forks last week. While the Segwit2x hard fork was mentioned in its announcement, the Bitcoin Gold hard fork was not.

Coinone’s bitcoin trading volume has recently surpassed another leading South Korean exchange, Korbit, according to Coinmarketcap. The platform has gained more popularity since it launched a physical exchange early last month. Citing the “possibility that a new virtual currency will be derived from the existing bitcoin,” the exchange wrote:

Coinone will do its best to support the creation of a new virtual currency, which is generated from a hard fork in the existing blockchain in the future, and to quickly support deposits and withdrawals.

The exchange also noted that there may be a temporary suspension of withdrawals during the forks.

Coinnest’s Policies

Meanwhile, digital currency trading platform Coinnest announced on Thursday its “full support” for both the Segwit2x and the Bitcoin Gold hard forks of Bitcoin’s blockchain.

The exchange currently ranks fourth by bitcoin trading volume in the country, according to Coinhills. However, its volume is about one-third of Korbit’s and less than a quarter of Coinone’s at the time of writing. In its announcement on Thursday, Coinnest CEO Kim Byeong-hwan said:

We have completed the technical preparations for the hard fork for the first time among the domestic exchanges.

The exchange detailed that users holding their bitcoins on its platform “will be automatically paid” the new cryptocurrency. “This bitcoin hard fork will start on October 24 and end on November 1,” the exchange wrote, adding if there is no problem with the blockchain split, both cryptocurrencies will be available for deposits and withdrawals on November 1. In addition, the exchange expressed “we are going to pay BTG,” referring to bitcoin gold.

At the time of writing, the country’s largest bitcoin exchange, Bithumb, and the country’s third largest, Korbit, have not announced their policies regarding the two hard forks.

What do you think of the two exchanges’ plans for the two Bitcoin hard forks? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coinone, and Coinnest.

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