Bitcoin hard fork on Sept. 1 draws no miner or exchange support

Luke Dashjr launched a Bitcoin hard fork on Sept. 1 by changing the mining algorithm to BLAKE2b and implementing BIP‑110 to remove non‑financial data from blocks. The split created an alternate chain that drew minimal hashrate, no major exchange listings and almost no trading.

BIP‑110 removes non‑financial data from blocks. The fork changed Bitcoin’s proof‑of‑work from SHA‑256 to BLAKE2b so ordinary computers could mine. The change made the fork incompatible with specialized SHA‑256 ASIC miners, and computing power supporting the new chain fell sharply after launch.

Miners and major exchanges did not adopt the fork. The original Bitcoin network continued producing blocks without interruption. BTC on the main network traded near $76,942, down about 1.33% over 24 hours.

One small beta exchange opened deposits for the fork under the provisional ticker BTCB2. Its order book was thin: bids peaked at $82 and asks at $190, a spread of roughly 131.7%. No major exchange listed the coin and reported trading volume was negligible.

An earlier BIP‑110 attempt in August ended after two blocks. At that time the mining pool OCEAN routed customer hashrate to the short‑lived chain, prompting calls for a change in the pool’s leadership. Developers of the Bitcoin Knots node software supported BIP‑110 in August, while former Ripple CTO David Schwartz criticized the proposal.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back posted on X: “Live by the fork, die by the fork.” Luke Dashjr posted on X that “Bitcoin just changed to BLAKE2b” and asserted the BTC ticker belonged to his chain; on‑chain metrics and market prices remained tied to the original network.