Japanese Digital Currency Exchanges Halt Bitcoin Services Again Ahead of Bitcoin Cash Split

For the second time in a matter of days, Japanese digital currency exchanges are halting their bitcoin services ahead of a potential bitcoin split expected today.

In a report from the Nikkei Asian Review , Bitbank and Minnano Bitcoin halted their services on Monday; however, BITPoint Japan is expected to keep handling services until 8 p.m. today. The coin split is expected to occur around 9:20 p.m. in Japan.

In July, it was reported that 13 Japanese digital currency exchanges would temporarily halt their services on the 1 August. According to an announcement from members of the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association (JCBA) they would be freezing bitcoin withdrawals and deposits to maintain customer assets and to avoid any unforeseen glitches and instability.

It read:

[W]e decided to temporarily stop accepting bitcoin deposits and withdrawals at each exchange due to the possibility of the branching (split) of the bitcoin protocol.

The 13 exchanges are:

• Bit Bank Co., Ltd.
• BitPoint Japan
• QUOINE Co., Ltd.
• Fiscalco Virtual Currency Exchange
• Coin Check Co., Ltd.
• BTC Box Co., Ltd.
• Tech Bureau Co., Ltd.
• GMO-Z.com Coin Co.,
• CAMPFIRE
• Bit Trade Co., Ltd.
• Bike Limited Co., Ltd.
• Tokyo Bitcoin Co., Ltd.
• Everyone’s bit coin Co., Ltd.

The exchanges are expected to resume their services again by the 4 August at 16:00 p.m. Japan time.

Watching and Waiting

The day that has been constantly talked about is finally here: the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCC) through a user activated hard fork (UAHF).

Shortly after 12:20 p.m. UTC those opposed to SegWit are expected to launch an alternative bitcoin that they believe sticks to the vision that Satoshi Nakamoto had for a digital currency. Those behind BCC are also aiming to help bitcoin scale by increasing the block size from one megabyte to eight megabytes.

However, despite the fact that actual Bitcoin Cash coins don’t exist yet, a number of digital currency exchanges have already revealed that they will credit bitcoin cash to traders holding bitcoin. These include the likes of OKCoin, ViaBTC, Bitfinex, Kraken, Coinfloor and BTCPop.

Bitcoin Price Rallies, BCC Falls

Since its listing, the value of Bitcoin Cash has plunged. According to CoinMarketCap, over the last seven days it’s dropped by over 36 percent and is currently trading at $291. On the 23 July, it was trading at $555.

Of course, today could change all that and it remains to be seen what will happen when the Bitcoin Cash price opens. Will investors be keen to flock to BCC and if so, will this have adverse affects on the price of bitcoin?

At the time of publishing, bitcoin is trading at $2,870 and is up nearly seven percent over a seven day period, according to CoinMarketCap . It seems the community is rallying behind bitcoin, but for how much longer will it last?

Featured image from Shutterstock.