Bitstamp To Launch Bitcoin Cash Trading

Bitstamp, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced it will launch trading of Bitcoin Cash, a new currency that many Bitcoin supporters view as a rival.

“We get requests from our users who want to trade it,” said Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodric. “We want to be as agnostic as possible so we look at the system, and if we believe there is sufficient demand and there will be trading and trading volume, we’re going to list it.”

Trading of Bitcoin Cash on Bitstamp, which is the third-largest in the world for U.S. dollar and euro trading of Bitcoin, begins in the next couple weeks. The move could indicate possible growing acceptance of a cryptocurrency that many hardcore Bitcoiners view as an unwanted stepchild of Bitcoin and potential threat to the top cryptocurrency.

It's also significant because Bitstamp is one of the more conservative exchanges and currently only offers trading in the other four cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum's Ether, Litecoin and Ripple's XRP — that round out the top five by market capitalization. It was the first nationally licensed Bitcoin exchange, a designation that applied across all 28 European Union countries.

The near-clone of Bitcoin was created in August by a group of Bitcoiners who disagree ideologically with the future development plans for the original cryptocurrency. They instead support a certain method for increasing the number of transactions that can be processed on the network at any given time that is generally known as “big blocks.” Bitcoin Cash currently has a market capitalization of $20 billion compared to Bitcoin’s $137 billion.