A Bitcoin-derived chain takes a snapshot this weekend — what holders should and shouldn't do

A Japanese exchange, GMO Coin, has told customers it may suspend several Bitcoin services around Aug. 23, when a Bitcoin-derived chain called eCash takes a balance snapshot at block 963,648, expected around midnight Japan time. Nothing about the event changes anyone's existing Bitcoin, but it is a clean example of how a “holders get a new coin” event reaches ordinary users through their exchange.

eCash plans to credit Bitcoin holders with a separate asset called ECX. Its live roadmap now splits the process into stages tied to Bitcoin block production: Alpha at block 963,648 around Aug. 23, Beta at block 967,680 around Sept. 20, and mainnet at block 973,728 around Oct. 31. Under that description the Alpha and Beta snapshots credit practice ECX, the permanent asset arrives at the mainnet snapshot, and practice units can be burned to redeem it. The dates are estimates, because blocks do not arrive on a clock.

The project's own documents do not fully agree. An integration guide updated Aug. 11 still calls block 963,648 the fork point and describes a 1:1 ECX credit there, while labeling itself pre-launch and saying final parameters, including the fork height and the replay scheme, would be published separately. That gap between roadmap and guide is part of why exchanges are hedging.

GMO Coin's Aug. 7 notice says any suspension remains conditional and that both start and end times are undecided. The possible scope covers Bitcoin spot trading, BTC/JPY crypto FX and leveraged trading, and BTC deposits and withdrawals. The exchange's stated reasons are technical: the new chain uses the same address formats as Bitcoin and replay protection is opt-in, which GMO said could create transfer risks. It also warned that volatility and thin liquidity could widen spreads and contribute to margin calls and forced sales, and that instability on a young chain could lead to transaction reversals.

Two clarifications matter. ECX is separate from eCash's existing XEC asset, and it is separate from BIP-110, a different Bitcoin soft-fork proposal whose timeline happens to use nearby block heights. Both GMO and eCash say the ECX chain does not alter users' existing BTC.

If you hold Bitcoin, the practical part is short. A snapshot reads balances you already hold; it never requires you to send coins anywhere, connect a wallet to a claim site, or approve a transaction to qualify. Events like this reliably attract fake claim pages, so treat any site or message offering to help you collect a new coin as hostile until proven otherwise, and never type a seed phrase into one. If your coins sit on an exchange, the one thing worth doing is reading that exchange's own notice, since deposit and withdrawal pauses are decided venue by venue, and in GMO's case have not been confirmed yet.