Bitcoin SV’s last few days have not been pretty. The coin, which is the result of the mid-November hard fork of Bitcoin Cash that also originated Bitcoin ABC, has lost a significant amount of value in the month of April, and has been delisted by famous cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance.
Not only that, but also, after Binance decided to delist BSV, the anonymous exchange ShapeShift took a similar approach and dropped the digital asset, which caused concern among the token holders and a sector of the industry.
Kraken Could Be Next
Kraken, one of the most prominent crypto exchanges in the United States of America, is also mulling the possibility of dropping Bitcoin SV from its offered cryptocurrencies, in what has the look of a domino effect that threatens to severely damage Bitcoin SV’s future prospects.
Erik Voorhees, who is currently the CEO of ShapeShift, expressed the company’s sentiments via the microblogging site Twitter. On April 15th, he informed that the exchange had decided to delist BSV, supporting Binance in the process: “We stand with @binance and CZ’s sentiments. We’ve decided to delist Bitcoin SV #BSV from @ShapeShift_io within 48 hrs.”
After ShapeShift’s announcement was made public, a sector in the community naturally criticized the decision. One person said that “this action by you smacks of PayPal cutting off Wikileaks. As a BTC maximalist I don’t like it. It goes against what BTC stands for,” referring to a 2010 situation in which payments services company PayPal froze WikiLeaks’ account, because it was, allegedly, violating the company’s terms of service.
If that was not enough, Kraken is also toying with the idea of stopping its offering of Bitcoin SV as an available token for trading. Actually, the exchange posted a poll in its social media channels asking people whether it should delist the coin or not. The option of keeping the list for the purpose of price discovery has not been discarded either.
Before ShapeShift, Binance had already started the week by saying it would delist the controversial digital asset, a measure that will be enforced starting next week. According to Binance’s officials, it only makes such a decision after thoroughly reviewing the situation. In this particular regard, the officials stated that “we believe this best protects all of our users.”
Interests Behind the Decision
CZ, which is the nickname of Changpeng Zhao (Binance’s CEO) recently tweeted a warning message saying that the possibility of delisting BSV existed, so the company’s decision comes as no surprise. It can be seen as a personal response to Craig Wright, which is one of the masterminds behind Bitcoin SV.
CZ is not a fan of Wright’s behavior. His Twitter message said “Craig Wright is not Satoshi. Anymore of this sh!t, we delist”. Wright has long claimed he is one of the minds behind Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin and the fuel that ignited the cryptocurrency revolution.
The statement by Zhao and the subsequent delisting probably represent a reprisal against Wright’s actions against Hodlnaut, which is the Twitter user behind the Lightning Torch project. The Australian offered $5,000 worth of BSV as a prize for whoever told him information about the identity of Hodlnaut. The community responded with the hashtag #WeAreAllHodlnaut as a support measure for the account, which has now been deleted from the space.
By Andres Chavez
