As Bitcoin Gold is scheduled to go public on October 25, it’s time to see how the bitcoin exchanges and service providers will handle the distribution of split tokens (BTG).
Some observers believe that the Bitcoin Gold hard fork may have already occurred in private. We don't know if that is true. The only sure thing is that the project developers will definitely open the new blockchain to the public only when the legacy Bitcoin chain reaches block number 491,407, which will happen on October 24, at 10 am UTC - five hours from now at the time of writing. The BTG network will go live on November 1.
Many crypto exchanges have already detailed their plan for the upcoming hard fork. Most of them will credit bitcoin holders with Bitcoin Gold tokens.
Coinbase: No Bitcoin Gold Here
The most important exception is Coinbase and GDAX which stated that they would not support the fork, which they see as incompatible with current Bitcoin. In a statement published on October 21, Coinbase points out that it “can not support bitcoin gold because its developers have not made the code available to the public for review — This is a major security risk,”
Nevertheless, Coinbase and its sibling GDAX will be monitoring Bitcoin Gold. The statement says the company may decide later to provide distribution support for the split tokens. “If Coinbase were to enable support for bitcoin gold at a future date, customers would be able to withdraw bitcoin gold associated with their Coinbase/GDAX bitcoin balances at the time of the bitcoin gold fork.” On October 25, Coinbase sent an email to its customers re-iterating that it will not support Bitcoin Gold at the moment.
Trezor and Ledger Are Cautious
At least two hardware wallet providers have detailed their plans publicly on BTG. Satoshi Labs, the Prague-based owner of Trezor Wallet, will wait until the new blockchain is alive and valid before making official announcements on Bitcoin Gold.
“Once there is a safe way, we will let you know,” explains Satoshi Labs.
Moreover, Trezor highlighted that Bitcoin Gold developers had not added replay protection yet, which poses a problem for a lot of service providers and SPVs. As far as bitcoin gold support goes, Satoshi Labs says it “depends on the timeframe — If bitcoin gold implements strong, two-way replay protection a day before the fork, we cannot be ready in time.”
Ledger, also detailed its plan on the bitcoin gold situation. Ledger will add immediate support for the bitcoin gold fork if/when the code is available, with replay protection, and if it’s successful/valid — Bitcoin Gold will fork on block 491,407 – just hold your BTC in a Legacy or Segwit address before. Nothing else [is] necessary.
Which Crypto Exchanges and Wallets Support Bitcoin Gold
The Coinomi Wallet will be supporting Bitcoin Gold, and it will offer split tokens support once the hard fork goes live on November 1. BTG Tokens will be credited to Coinomi wallet users who gold bitcoin, and it will offer 24/7 customer support.
Coinomi has already published a step-by-step process on how a user will be able to obtain their bitcoin gold tokens.
Bittrex: Will credit BTG but without listing it
Bittrex announced they would be crediting users with bitcoin gold if they held bitcoin on the exchange before block 491,407. However, the exchange may not list the forked token within the platform’s markets, as the business has concerns.
Additionally, seven bitcoin exchanges in Japan have made announcements concerning the planned Bitcoin Gold hard fork.
Bitflyer: Full support to Bitcoin Gold
Bitflyer, Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will distribute and trade the new cryptocurrency. The company announced on Saturday that its customers will be credited with an amount of bitcoin gold corresponding to the amount of bitcoin in their accounts before the split. No suspension of service is scheduled. The exchange wrote:
"If the BTG [Bitcoin Gold] split is deemed by Bitflyer to be permanent and secure in regards to customer assets, on November 1 (tentative), users will be credited with BTG and purchase and sale of BTG will be made available on Bitflyer."
Other Japan exchanges will only distribute the coins, while others are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Coincheck: Yes to Bitcoin Gold
Coincheck plans to support the new Bitcoin offspring.
“We are planning to provide bitcoin gold if a Bitcoin Gold split occurs,” the exchange stated.
However, Coincheck explained that they may not be able to provide the new cryptocurrency. Among the reasons cited were the lack of adequate replay protection, miner hashpower, or protection from other vulnerabilities.
In addition, the new coins will not be made available if Coincheck decides that the “listing of bitcoin gold is inappropriate.”
Currently, no service suspension has been planned. The exchange wrote:
Coincheck: We are planning to distribute bitcoin gold after we confirmed its security and stability. We haven’t determined the specific date and time yet.
Bitpoint will also credit BTG to bitcoin holders
Bitpoint announced that they would give bitcoin gold to customers according to the number of bitcoins held at the time of the fork. However, the exchange underlined that this could be delayed if the new blockchain is unstable or there is a risk of replay attacks, the exchange conveyed. No service suspension has been planned. As for BTG withdrawal and deposit, Bitpoint added:
Regarding the withdrawal and deposit services and the buying and selling of the newly generated bitcoin gold, since the security design of the newly formed blockchain has not been sufficiently confirmed, its handling is undecided at this stage.
GMO Coin also announced that they would be granting Bitcoin Gold to bitcoin holders. But the timing is undecided, and the exchange will temporarily suspend bitcoin deposits and withdrawals around 20:00 on October 25. At the moment, there are no plans to offer services such as buying and selling of bitcoin gold.
Exchanges Without initial BTG Support
Three other Japanese exchanges have stated that they will wait before making any announcements on Bitcoin Gold. Zaif exchange announced that they would “ not grant [access to] BTG, [including] deposits, withdrawals, and transactions at this time.” They might do so, once the concerns about the new cryptocurrency have been addressed. Fisco and Bitbank have adopted a similar stance. Fisco said it would not “grant, deposit, withdraw, or trade bitcoin gold (BTG) at this time” and there is a possibility to suspend deposits and withdrawals of bitcoins (BTC) around October 25.
Bitbank will also not support Bitcoin Gold. Thus it will not grant bitcoin gold to customers. The company cited “several reasons” including the state of Bitcoin Gold’s code. However, the company will take a snapshot of customer assets at the time of the split so that it can review the situation in the future.