Dynamic Tracking of Ethereum Fork Events

Organizer: Chain Catcher

As the Ethereum merge approaches (expected to take place on September 10), Ethereum is set to transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). Currently, some exchanges, project teams, and industry influencers have begun to publicly "choose sides" regarding the Ethereum fork, and the "fork war" of Ethereum seems imminent. Chain Catcher will update the latest developments regarding the Ethereum PoW fork in reverse chronological order, so please stay tuned.

Supporters of ETH Fork (Old Chain Supporters)

Mining Pools: F2pool

Exchanges: BitMEX, OKX, Poloniex, Gate

Crypto Projects: APENFT

Opponents of ETH Fork (New Chain Supporters)

Exchanges: Deribit, FTX, Binance, Coinbase

Crypto Projects: DeBank, Argent, Chainlink, Tether, Circle

KOLs: Flashbots Strategic Director Hasu, DCG CEO Barry Silbert

September 19

11:57

The total network hash rate of ETHW has dropped to 35.26 TH/s, a decrease of 56.23% from its peak. The price of ETHW has fallen over 40% in the last 24 hours, currently reported at $4.87.

September 16

12:50

Binance announced that after the successful deployment on the Ethereum Proof of Work chain (ETHW), it will distribute ETHW based on the net ETH balance of eligible wallets according to the snapshot taken on the 15th, at a ratio of 1ETH = 1ETHW, and will be credited to spot wallets.

Additionally, for trading and listing ETHW on Binance, ETHW will undergo the same strict listing review process as any other token. Binance will not provide any guarantees for listings.

September 15

17:00

FTX launched EthereumPoW (ETHW) spot trading, with an opening price of $20.57.

September 15

15:35

Ethereum successfully merged at block height 15537393, with the first PoS block height at 15537394, and the block reward reaching as high as 45.03 ETH, valued at over $72,000 at current prices.

August 15

18:20

FTX announced that it will evaluate the distribution of forked tokens after the ETH merge. If FTX decides to allocate forked tokens to users, ETH borrowing users will need to deduct the cost of the forked tokens from their borrowing limits, with the snapshot time determined by the specific time of the fork. Provided that FTX decides to distribute forked tokens, they will be distributed after the fork is completed. The "ETH" token symbol will be used for the ETH PoS chain after the merge. (Source link)

August 10

21:30

Binance released an announcement regarding its support for the Ethereum merge plan, stating that it will support the Ethereum merge plan and will evaluate and support the distribution and withdrawal of any new forked tokens that may arise. At the same time, all forked coins must go through Binance's normal listing review process. According to internal policy, Binance will not provide any guarantees for listings.

19:29

The Tron-based NFT platform APENFT announced its support for the ETH 2.0 merge and potential hard fork. After the fork, all NFT transactions on the ETHPoW chain will be supported by the APENFT marketplace. (Source link)

11:49

Tether, the issuer of USDT, officially confirmed its support for Ethereum's upcoming merge upgrade and the transition to a PoS consensus mechanism blockchain. Tether believes that a smooth transition for ETH is crucial for the long-term health of the DeFi ecosystem and its platforms (including those using Tether). (Cointelegraph)

August 9

23:34

Circle, the issuer of USDC, stated that it will only support the Ethereum PoS chain after the Ethereum merge is completed, and it is expected that the on-chain functionality of USDC or its fully automated issuance and redemption services will not be interrupted. (Source link)

19:21

The fixed-rate protocol Notional Finance clearly stated that it will not allocate any support or resources to support Notional on any forks, and only the core PoS Ethereum chain will continue to receive support, with all recent developments and updates continuing on this mainnet. (Source link)

14:55

The crypto derivatives exchange Deribit announced that Deribit settlements will occur on the chain supported by the ETH Foundation (i.e., PoS or ETH2). If the value of forked tokens exceeds 0.25% of ETH PoS and the new chain is stable and operating normally, Deribit will provide these forked tokens to users; however, if there are new tokens, they will not be considered as margin. (Source link)

12:42

FTX stated that there are no plans to suspend or settle ETH futures before the merge and will do its utmost to support subsequent trading. Ethereum futures and perpetual contracts (ETH-0930, ETH-1230, ETH-PERP) on FTX will track the Ethereum network adopting Proof of Stake (PoS) after the merge, and FTX will continue to provide more details. (Source link)

09:36

The DeFi wallet DeBank stated on its official Twitter that the hard fork would bring a huge disaster to the entire Web3 ecosystem. Therefore, during the transition period of Ethereum's PoS merge, DeBank and all products will not support any forked chains, including the Web3 user platform DeBankDeFi, the non-custodial wallet Rabby, and the Web3 developer service DeBankOpenAPI. (Source link)

08:38

The Aave community published a technical analysis article supporting the new proposal from the Aave community to "only support the PoS chain after the merge." From a technical and operational perspective, smart contracts related to liquidity protocols will not be affected after the merge. Additionally, due to the lack of oracle and related liquidity issues, Aave cannot operate normally on any PoW chain. If any user decides to interact directly with Aave smart contracts on any fork, they should take responsibility for themselves. (Source link)

August 8

18:18

The cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX announced that it will launch contracts based on the future ETHPOW token, ETHPOWZ22, tomorrow, allowing users to gain exposure to ETHPOW with up to 2x leverage. (Source link)

17:21

OKX CEO Jay Hao stated on social media today that OKX is actively monitoring and will support the Ethereum merge. This network upgrade may result in an Ethereum hard fork, and OKX will evaluate the demand for listing hard fork tokens. (Source link)

08:50

DCG CEO Barry Silbert stated on his social media regarding the Ethereum fork event, "We fully support Ethereum PoS and do not support any Ethereum PoW. ETH miners should switch to ETC to maximize long-term income." (Source link)

08:25

The oracle protocol Chainlink stated on its official website that during and after the Ethereum merge, the Chainlink protocol and its services will continue to operate on Ethereum and will not support forks of the Ethereum network, including PoW forks, which aligns with the Ethereum community's decision to upgrade the chain to PoS. For Ethereum developers and DApp teams uncertain about their migration strategies around the merge, it is recommended to pause smart contract operations to avoid unforeseen events and help protect users. (Source link)

August 6

23:20

Flashbots Strategic Director Hasu commented on the ETH PoW fork, stating that many, including himself, have predicted for years that miners would fork Ethereum to extract the last profits from their investments. A large amount of hash power does not bring any significant value to this chain. The chance of redeeming major stablecoins on the forked chain is zero, and anyone saying otherwise is a fraud.

If there are any issues with the merge, it will only be delayed until the issues are resolved, and then the merge will occur weeks later. No one in the Ethereum community, except miners, wants to continue using Proof of Work (PoW). The forked chain will be a huge retail trap. Miners, exchanges, and traders are all trying to justify their own interests.

No one wants to use or build on PoW ETH. He has studied the ETC, BCH, and BSV forks, which actually divided their respective communities. In all cases, their minority groups are true believers, not for short-term trading. ETH PoW has less than 1% support. (Source link)

23:42

Gate.io: Supports ETH pre-fork and will distribute potential fork token "candies" to users in advance and open trading functions. (Source link)

August 5

21:42

Huobi: Respects community consensus but does not encourage forks without practical innovation and improvement, opposing any form of pre-mining. (Source link)

15:34

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated at the BUIDL Asia event that centralized stablecoins like USDT and USDC may be "important decision factors for future hard forks." Vitalik Buterin added that there may be more controversial hard forks in Ethereum in the next five to ten years, and centralized stablecoin issuers may become more influential decision-makers. (Cointelegraph)

August 4

16:43

The Tron crypto trading platform Poloniex announced its support for the ETH 2.0 upgrade and potential fork, and will launch two potential fork futures tokens and related trading markets on August 8. Poloniex reserves the right to modify or change this announcement (e.g., to delist related trading pairs in advance) to adapt to the latest market trends. In response, Justin Sun tweeted that currently, we (Justin Sun and the Poloniex trading platform) hold over 1 million ETH, and if this Ethereum successfully forks, we will donate some ETHW (Ethereum PoW fork chain) to the ETHW community and developers to help establish the Ethereum ecosystem. (Source link)

July 31

19:21

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino tweeted that they plan to support ETH2, and support for the merged Ethereum 2.0 will be seamless. This is unrelated to our preference for POW or POS; stablecoins should act responsibly to avoid disrupting users. (Source link)