Blockchain Wallet, ShapeShift to Delist Bitcoin SV, Kraken Considers Joining the Bandwagon

After crypto exchange Binance’s decision to delist Bitcoin SV (BSV), anonymous exchange ShapeShift has also decided to drop the cryptocurrency, with Kraken considering to follow suit.

The world’s largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Binance, has said it will de-list bitcoin SV, striking it from the exchange as of April 22 as it no longer “meets the high level of standard we expect.”

The story didn’t end. On Monday (April 15), just hours after Binance announced their decision of de-listing, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees said that his exchange had also decided to delist Bitcoin SV. And the next exchange set to follow suit seems to be Jesse Powell’s Kraken exchange.

Even though Craig Wright threats to sue everybody who claimed he isn’t the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao doesn’t seem to care:

The problem for most people is, you have to front the legal costs, which can mount to millions of dollars. Fortunately, we can deal with it. One of the key problem with most legal systems around the world today. — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 12, 2019

oh, and it won't be the first time, and we learned a few things. The losers pay for our lawyer fees. We have a number of very good/expensive lawyers. — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 12, 2019

With him agreed a co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin who tweeted:

It's possible to agree fully and strongly with this and at the same time fully consistently support #DelistBSV Maybe I should write a blog post soon on free speech ethics… it's a topic that seems to confuse pretty much everyone. — Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) April 15, 2019

In a tweet posted on April 15, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees revealed that the company came to a decision to stop listing BSV:

We stand with @binance and CZ's sentiments. We’ve decided to delist Bitcoin SV #BSV from @ShapeShift_io within 48 hrs. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) April 15, 2019

Kraken Exchange then conducted the following Twitter poll around two hours after Binance’s announcement:

Should Kraken delist Bitcoin SV (BSV)? #delistbsv — Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) April 15, 2019

With 60,597 votes cast so far and 72% asking for Bitcoin SV to be delisted, it seems like Kraken has already made the decision to delist and just wants to have a good justification for it.

The next to join in the anti-BSV debacle seems to be Blockchain.com, the popular wallet platform, not an exchange. In a tweet posted shortly after Voorhees’ statement and Kraken’s poll, Peter Smith, the chief executive of the San Francisco-headquartered startup, revealed that his firm would be delisting BSV by the middle of May.

This, just like the Binance delisting, will be a large blow for the project, as Blockchain has historically been one of the most, if not the most popular crypto asset wallet.

In the next thirty days, we will end even close out support for #BSV transactions. To use #BSV, go somewhere else! https://t.co/PCsbtn3MHG https://t.co/oSN19wIWre — Peter Smith (@OneMorePeter) April 15, 2019

They announced:

“We’re invested in the long-term health of the crypto ecosystem and are mindful to support cryptocurrencies that are reliable, safe, and convenient. Since January we’ve offered limited support for Bitcoin Cash SV (BSV) and have been closely monitoring activity of the BSV network since the hard fork in November. After careful consideration, we have determined to end all support of BSV within the Blockchain Wallet by May 15, 2019. ”

OkeX is Not Delisting “For the Time Being”

Calvin Ayre, a supporter of Wright and the founder and owner of CoinGeek, a cryptocurrency miner and developer, responsed to the de-listing saying:

“This decision will certainly be reported to the Maltese regulators as this is surely a case of people in trusted positions abusing that trust and playing God with which token gets the most volume and market access. In essence, market manipulation. The decision to delist bitcoin SV seems to be based on the fact that they don’t like one scientist that works on the platform. Craig doesn’t own bitcoin SV, nor does anybody, so this appears to be very unprofessional. An exchange should just want volume of trading not picking which horses it wants to win the race and, as a result, smells of fear and manipulation.”

Obviously, Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx agrees because they have just announced that it had decided not to delist Bitcoin SV (BSV) “for the time being.”

Recently-founded BSV-based cryptocurrency exchange FloatSV, which was created in partnership with OKEx, announced that it was going to launch by April 19 what Ayre commented:

https://twitter.com/CalvinAyre/status/1117809899155664896

It comes as no surprise that a delisting by the biggest exchange in the world has resulted in a massive freefall in the BSV price, declining by a whopping 20.94% percent at press time. Following a rise to $95 at the beginning of the month, when BTC ascended above $5,000, the current price is 40 percent lower, trading at a dismal $56.88.