With a billion-dollar industry fearing the loss of its revenue after the Ethereum upgrade — scheduled for September — a new Ethereum fork could be in the works. With this, ETH holders will earn such cryptocurrency for free, in a 1 to 1 ratio. Some exchanges such as Poloniex and MEXC have already shown themselves in favor of the so-called ETHPoW, or just ETHW, signaling support for this new “miners’ cryptocurrency” . At Poloniex, for example, ETHW trading is already open. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, stated that such exchanges are only concerned with making money quickly. In other words, he does not consider ETHW to be a competitor to ETH.
Exchanges start distributing new Ethereum for free
With rumors that miners will create a new Ethereum, called ETHPoW or ETHW, some exchanges have started to speak out in recent days, showing support for the new cryptocurrency that will be distributed for free to ETH holders. So far, the biggest one is Poloniex, an exchange owned by Justin Sun, founder of Tron (TRX), a direct competitor to Ethereum (ETH). In addition to listing the new coin, the exchange is also willing to support the development of the ETHW ecosystem.
“We currently have over 1 million ETH. If the Ethereum hard fork is successful, we will donate some ETHW from the fork to the ETHW community and developers to build the Ethereum ecosystem.”
We currently have more than 1 million #ETH. if #Ethereum hard fork succeeds, we will donate some forked #ETHW to #ETHW community and developers to build #ethereum ecosystem. https://t.co/ee4kGSuVoK — HE Justin Sun🌞🇬🇩 (@justinsuntron) August 4, 2022
Already on its blog, Poloniex points out that users can already convert ETH into two currencies, ETHS and ETHW, in a ratio of 1:1. The catch is that the funds will be stuck on the exchange, probably until the Ethereum update, no withdrawal possibility. Interestingly, ETHW has already been trading on the platform since the morning of this Sunday (7). Each ETHW is worth around $150, or ~0.087 ETH, while ETHS is trading for ~0.92 ETH.
ETHW trades, new Ethereum fork, on Poloniex. At the MEXC brokerage, the plans are similar — not to mention identical. Ethers can now be turned into ETHW and ETHS, trading will start this Monday (8) and withdrawals will also be blocked. Therefore, such coins are called IOU (I Owe You) as they do not yet exist. While it appears to be a way to make money, there is a risk of coins being stuck indefinitely if the Ethereum update is delayed again.
Vitalik Buterin believes this is some kind of scam
For the founder of Ethereum, such a fork is just a way for exchanges to make quick money. In other words, this new cryptocurrency could be like so many Bitcoin clones — Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin ABC — projects that are useless.
“They’re just trying to make a quick buck.”
Following, Vitalik Buterin also points out that “there will be problems” with ETHW. However, he stated that the responsibility will be with whoever makes this fork: “it is up to them to mitigate these problems”. Finally, it is possible that this fork was another reason for the “Ethereum Migration Rally”, with investors knowing in advance that they would receive this new coin.