GMO Coin Warns of Potential Exchange Freeze Amid eCash Snapshot

The Bitcoin community is bracing for potential exchange freezes as eCash, a new Bitcoin-derived chain, prepares to take its first balance snapshot at block 963,648. This event is expected to occur around midnight Japan time on August 23.

GMO Coin has warned that it may suspend several Bitcoin services during this period, including spot trading, leveraged trading, and BTC deposits and withdrawals. However, the exchange has not confirmed whether a pause will occur or how long any interruption might last.

eCash's Alpha stage is an intermediate step towards its mainnet launch, which is currently planned for block 973,728 around October 31. The project aims to credit Bitcoin holders with a separate ECX asset, but the new chain uses the same address formats as Bitcoin and offers opt-in replay protection.

GMO Coin has expressed concerns that this setup could create transfer risks due to volatility and thin liquidity, which may lead to wider spreads or forced sales. Additionally, early chain instability could result in transaction reversals.