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Bitstamp to Add Bitcoin Cash Support by End of September

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:59 PM
Josiah Wilmoth
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:59 PM

European bitcoin exchange Bitstamp announced it will add bitcoin cash trading pairs by the end of September.

In the announcement , Bitstamp said they decided to add support for bitcoin cash in response to “high levels of customer demand.” Exchange users who had bitcoin balances at the time of the August 1 hard fork will receive their air-dropped coins in their platform wallet.

Additionally, bitcoin cash will receive three Bitstamp trading pairs: BCH/BTC, BCH/USD, and BCH/EUR. The Euro pair is a particularly beneficial for the bitcoin cash community, since this trading pair currently has only about $4 million of liquidity, and virtually all of that is concentrated on Kraken. If the rumored Chinese bitcoin ban does materialize, having a direct outlet to another fiat currency will help compensate for the $41 million loss of BCC/CNY.

bitstamp
Bitcoin Cash Trading Volume | Chart from CoinMarketCap

That Bitstamp added support for bitcoin cash so quickly also helps build the coin’s legitimacy. Until recently, the exchange only supported two cryptocurrencies: bitcoin and XRP. Within the past few months, Bitstamp has added litecoin and ethereum pairs, but both of these cryptocurrencies are much more established than bitcoin cash.

Bitcoin cash users took to social media to express their elation and vindication in the coin’s Bitstamp listing, but they were quick to begin renewed calls for U.S. exchange Coinbase to distribute BCH to its users and add buy/sell support for the coin. Coinbase had not planned to interact with the bitcoin cash blockchain at all, but after widespread community grumbling they reversed their position and announced they will allow users to withdraw their air-dropped coins by January 2018.

Bitcoin cash is currently trading at a global average of $509. It has declined 1% in the past day, which is better than most major coins have fared during the current market slump. This relatively positive performance has enabled bitcoin cash mining profitability to edge past that of the main blockchain, according to data obtained from Coin Dance. At present, the forked chain is about 4% more profitable than the main bitcoin blockchain, although the main network still accounts for about 90% of the combined BCH/BTC hashrate.

Featured image from Shutterstock.