[2017-10-17] Hong Kong Bitcoin Exchange OKEx to Open SegWit2x Futures Market

[nickbelski]

Bitcoin exchange OKEx has announced it will join Bitfinex in opening a futures market to enable traders to speculate on the outcome of the SegWit2x hard fork scheduled for November. Notably, the exchange states that it will list the original chain as BTC, regardless of the fork’s outcome.

The Hong Kong-based exchange made the announcement in a blog post, stating that it will open a SegWit2x futures market on October 17 as a way to provide support for “all major Bitcoin technical development roadmaps” and respect their customers’ individual wishes.

From the post:

    “OKEx would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that: as a company dedicated to [promoting] Bitcoin application, we strive to provide the best services to our customers.   Therefore, we will support all major Bitcoin technical development roadmaps and respect our customers’ individual desire.”

OKEx will allow users to split BTC into tokens representing the future value of coins on both blockchains. The ticker BT1 will be used to designate coins from the original chain, while BT2 will represent coins on the SegWit2x chain.

Following the fork, tokens will be converted to coins from their corresponding blockchain. Significantly, the original chain will retain the “BTC” ticker, regardless of any external factors such as hashrate or accumulated difficulty. This means that BT1 tokens will be converted into BTC, while SegWit2x tokens will be converted into withdrawable coins but will continue to trade under the BT2 ticker on OKEx. If the hard fork is called off, BT1 will be converted into BTC and BT2 will be destroyed.

The OKEx futures market is structured similarly to that of Bitfinex, which intends to list the SegWit2x blockchain under the B2X ticker after the fork. At present, BT1 is trading at $4,870 on Bitfinex, while BT2 is valued at $804. Given their low liquidity, analysts disagree about the extent to which these valuations signal support for each blockchain, but SegWit2x critics have pointed to BT2’s low value as justification for their opposition to the hard fork.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-exchange-okex-to-open-segwit2x-futures-market/

[BitHodler]

Bitfinex S2X futures trade around the 0.14BTC mark, which is quite what I would expext them to trade for in case a chain split has become reality. Eventually, the value of S2X coins will follow the same route as BCC.

All these splits are pathetic in reality, but people get excited and hyped up due to them thinking about the "free money" that rolls into their pockets. I'm afraid that these splits will become somewhat of a trend, unfortunately.

Worst thing is that basically any entity is free to fork off at any time, and exactly this freedom is something certain entities have no problems with exploiting, even when they know that it might potentially harm Bitcoin.

[buwaytress]

Bitfinex S2X futures trade around the 0.14BTC mark, which is quite what I would expext them to trade for in case a chain split has become reality. Eventually, the value of S2X coins will follow the same route as BCC.

All these splits are pathetic in reality, but people get excited and hyped up due to them thinking about the "free money" that rolls into their pockets. I'm afraid that these splits will become somewhat of a trend, unfortunately.

Worst thing is that basically any entity is free to fork off at any time, and exactly this freedom is something certain entities have no problems with exploiting, even when they know that it might potentially harm Bitcoin.

I'm really surprised that they've valued it so high, only fractionally lower than what BCH futures were like. Not that I'm a fan of Bitcoin Cash, but it had significantly wealther and more powerful interests behind it. Bitcoin Gold, for all its ideology can't seriously believe it can make a convincing case to users.

It'll follow the same route as BCH, that's for sure. But I foresee them sliding down that slippery slope even quicker.

As many as 3 splits this year, you reckon this will only set the path for more next year?

[richardsNY]

Greedy exchanges are trying to anticipate on what has to come. It seems that there is an industry starting to form around these forks, where I wouldn't be surprised to see exchanges play a certain role in this. I wouldn't feel good as exchange to incentivize such practices, because this will only lead to more of these splits as Bithodler also pointed at -- it's almost a game that's being played with Bitcoun. I know that this is done to fill their pockets, but exchanges should really distance themselves from these forks by not listing them -- only then will this nonsense eventually be put to a stop.

[Xavofat]

it had significantly wealther and more powerful interests behind it.

Bitcoin Cash had ViaBTC and a small amount of miners, plus the acceptance of some wallets and exchanges (not that this meant that the services necessarily supported it).

SegWit2x has the following powerful supporters:

-BITMAIN (who did not support Bitcoin Cash, despite all the misinformation on this forum)
-Bitpay
-Coinbase
-Digital Currency Group
-Xapo
-Shapeshift.io
-A sizeable yet falling amount of miners, currently around 80-90% of them.

Clearly you are not paying attention.

Bitcoin Gold, for all its ideology can't seriously believe it can make a convincing case to users.

Bitcoin Gold is unrelated to SegWit2x.  I would be shocked if Bitcoin Gold turns out to have any relevant value at all.  This article is about SegWit2x.

[buwaytress]

it had significantly wealther and more powerful interests behind it.

Bitcoin Cash had ViaBTC and a small amount of miners, plus the acceptance of some wallets and exchanges (not that this meant that the services necessarily supported it).

SegWit2x has the following powerful supporters:

-BITMAIN (who did not support Bitcoin Cash, despite all the misinformation on this forum)
-Bitpay
-Coinbase
-Digital Currency Group
-Xapo
-Shapeshift.io
-A sizeable yet falling amount of miners, currently around 80-90% of them.

Clearly you are not paying attention.

Yes, you are right, I wasn't paying attention, my mistake for reading Segwit2x as Bitcoin Gold! So take that mistake into context and you'll see it was pretty pointless to list all that up there, as I was saying that Bitcoin Cash had "significantly wealthier and more powerful interests behind it"... thank you for backing up that statement, nevertheless! Well done!

[MMostaza]

I think this article give a hint of why OKEx and Bitfinex wants to make money from SegWit2x:

https://www.coindesk.com/explainer-what-is-segwit2x-and-what-does-it-mean-for-bitcoin/

From the article:

Who supports it? Who opposes it?

In favor of SegWit2x are a significant number of high-profile bitcoin businesses and individuals, most of whom are more closely affiliated with the ecosystem's startup and investment community.

These include:

Most of the network's larger mining pools
Bitcoin startups like Coinbase, BitPay and Blockchain
Notable developers, including former lead maintainer of Bitcoin Core, Gavin Andresen.
A full list of supporters can be found in the original SegWit2x agreement announcement.

Still, others oppose the plan, including:

A few businesses (including Bitrated and Bitonic)
Many node operators and bitcoin users
Nearly all Bitcoin Core developers responsible for maintaining the software.
The actively updated Bitcoin Wiki page offers a longer list of those who support, oppose and are undecided.

So the main bitcoin businesses and individuals related with investment community are supporting SegWit2x, means that best way to make money is to speculate with the technology that these people are going to support...