So far, the Blockchain split between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash has been relatively uneventful. The Bitcoin price experienced some volatility, dropping by about 10 percent this morning, before recovering about half its losses.
Earlier today, Kraken began crediting Bitcoin Cash to holders of Bitcoin on its exchange, while simultaneously launching Bitcoin Cash trading pairs. The price of Bitcoin Cash has remained relatively stable around 0.07 BTC, or about $190.
Bitcoin seems to have stabilized around $2,750 at press time.
There had been speculation that the launch of Bitcoin Cash could result in wild market fluctuations, but that does not appear to have happened.
While volatility has been higher than normal due to traders withdrawing many of their funds from exchanges, there haven’t been any flash crashes or other abnormalities.
Likewise, some had wondered if supporters of Bitcoin Cash might dump their Bitcoin in order to pump the price of Bitcoin Cash.
At press time, this has not yet happened.
Roger Ver claims
Much speculation centers around Roger Ver, who claims to have 130,000 BTC and has said that he is willing to put his money on the line and bet on the success of Bitcoin Cash.
The chain split will not formally complete until Bitcoin Cash has mined at least six blocks. Because of high difficulty and low hashpower (only about two percent of Bitcoin’s hashpower is mining the rival chain), it could take a number of hours before the requisite number of blocks are mined.
Many exchanges are still waiting on more blocks to be found before launching Bitcoin Cash trading pairs or enabling deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin Cash.
Consequently, the supply of Bitcoin Cash on exchanges is limited only to people who had Bitcoin balances before the split. Once exchanges enable deposits of Bitcoin Cash, the price is likely to drop further due to increased supply.