Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange, is finally allowing users to withdraw bitcoin Satoshi vision (BSV) – the cryptocurrency created in a hard fork of the bitcoin cash blockchain on Nov. 15.
On that day, bitcoin cash was scheduled to implement upgrades to its blockchain, as it is programmed to do every six months, but contention ultimately led developers and miners to adopt two different incompatible versions of the software: bitcoin cash ABC (BCH) and BSV, which now operate as separate cryptocurrencies with separate values.
Coinbase users who held bitcoin cash in their accounts at the time of the fork were given BSV coins at a 1:1 ratio, and the exchange notified its users today, three months after the fork, that their BSV balances could now be accessed.
Since Coinbase does not support BSV trading at this time, users will need to export their BSV balance to an external wallet if they wish to trade it for another cryptocurrency or for fiat.
In the email, the exchange made note of the circumstances and provided instructions on how to do so:
“Coinbase does not support purchases or sales of BSV, so you cannot sell your BSV for fiat currency on Coinbase. You may send your BSV balance to an external wallet following instructions here.”
On Nov. 20, Coinbase announced the competing bitcoin cash blockchain called bitcoin cash ABC would retain the BCH ticker and compatibility with Coinbase’s trading infrastructure.
At the time of writing, BSV is trading across exchanges at an average price of $62.58 while its competitor BCH costs nearly twice the price at $120.23, according to pricing data from CoinDesk.
Disclosure: The author holds BTC, AST, REQ, OMG, FUEL, 1st and AMP at the time of writing.
Coinbase phone image via Shutterstock