GMO Coin May Pause BTC Services Ahead of eCash Alpha

GMO Coin warned on Aug. 7 it may pause Bitcoin spot trading, BTC/JPY crypto FX, leveraged trading, and Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals during eCash’s Alpha balance snapshot at block 963,648, expected around midnight Japan time on Aug. 23. The exchange did not set start or end times for any suspension, leaving the interruption conditional.

eCash is a new chain derived from Bitcoin that plans to credit holders with a separate ECX asset. Its live roadmap labels the upcoming event an Alpha stage that issues practice ECX units. The roadmap sets Beta at block 967,680 (around Sept. 20) and Mainnet at block 973,728 (around Oct. 31); because the stages follow Bitcoin block production, the dates are estimates.

GMO flagged technical and market risks tied to the snapshot. eCash uses Bitcoin address formats and offers replay protection only on an opt-in basis; transfers without the correct protections could move or be replayed across chains. The exchange also warned thin liquidity and early volatility on a new chain could widen spreads, increase margin calls and forced liquidations, and in some cases lead to transaction reversals.

Documentation from the project contains mixed signals about the fork point and the crediting method. The live roadmap describes Alpha and Beta as issuing practice ECX that can later be burned to redeem permanent ECX at mainnet. An integration guide updated Aug. 11 still identifies block 963,648 as the fork point and describes a 1:1 ECX credit, while labeling the guide pre-launch and saying final parameters, including fork height and replay scheme, will be published separately. The discrepancy has led exchanges to treat the event cautiously.

ECX is distinct from the existing XEC token and from BIP-110, a separate Bitcoin soft-fork proposal that uses nearby block heights. Both eCash and GMO state the ECX chain does not alter users’ existing BTC balances on the Bitcoin chain.

For now block 963,648 functions as a planning milestone. GMO’s next public update will determine whether customers face a service interruption and will provide any missing start and end times.