The upcoming SegWit2x hard fork is of great interest to Bitcoin users all over the world. Although support seems to have dwindled somewhat, plenty of people still think this fork will be a major success. This explains why the SegWit2x futures market is getting a lot of attention, so much so that CoinMarketCap has decided to list it as its own currency. It’s an interesting development, even though there is only one platform with a B2X futures market which is tracked right now.
SegWit2x Futures on Coinmarketcap
It isn’t entirely uncommon for CoinMarketCap to display currencies which aren’t traded in any official capacity just yet. In most cases, the site does this with ICO tokens. However, it seems the team has received a few requests to include SegWit2x futures as well. As a result, we now have SegWit2x as a separate currency on CoinMarketCap. This listing is certainly worth keeping an eye on for multiple reasons.
First of all, CoinMarketCap only keeps track of HitBTC’s SegWit2x futures markets. That is rather controversial in its own way, considering there are multiple platforms trading such futures right now. HitBTC is by far the largest platform in this regard, though, as evidenced by the fact that it offers three different trading pairs for B2X right now. One can trade these futures against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT at the present time.
Secondly, the site clearly distinguishes SegWit2x as an altcoin, rather than the new Bitcoin. This is an interesting take on things, as SegWit2x supporters will gladly predict that this hard fork will become Bitcoin sooner rather than later. Whether or not that is how things will play out remains a big mystery. Until proven otherwise, the fork currency is an altcoin and nothing more.
Third, there is the choice to name SegWit2x futures as B2X. Up to this point, there has been no officially agreed-upon abbreviation for this entity, even though every altcoin needs its own ticker symbol. Should SegWit2x effectively become the new Bitcoin, however, it is possible the current SegWit chain would need to rebrand as B1X or something similar. This aspect is also worth keeping a close eye on, as it remains to be seen how these nomenclature issues will play out.
Back to the SegWit2x futures markets themselves, HitBTC has been seeing some interesting volume. With US$224,300 worth of trading action over the past 24 hours, this market has been getting a fair bit of attention. It is evident these futures are not of great interest to speculators and manipulators right now, though. Otherwise, this volume would be an eight-digit number at the very least. The B2X/BTC market represents over 90% of all B2X trades right now on HitBTC, which is to be expected.
In the end, it remains to be seen how SegWit2x will affect Bitcoin as a whole. There is a good chance it will be a minority chain, although it is difficult to make an accurate prediction in this regard. With the futures valued at US$955 right now, no one can deny this coin will be in high demand. Additionally, most people will dump these coins as a way to get some extra BTC when they become available. The next few weeks will be crucial for SegWit2x; that much is evident.
