<p><strong>No, it doesn't mean free money.</strong></p>

<p>When a cryptocurrency forks into 2 separate cryptocurrencies, then the market sets the value for each. </p>

<p>Much of the value of Bitcoin is based on several things, such as the existing base of businesses that accept it, the efficacy and reliability of the developers maintaining it, and the familiarity by people that use it.</p>

<p>After a fork, that value becomes reduced, as many users or businesses pick one or the other to use. </p>

<p>New value may be created by new functionality added by the changes that caused the fork, or overall value (ie the sum of both forks) may become reduced due to a loss of trust in the system.</p>

<p><strong>A more reasonable expectation is probably that the overall value, between both forks, is roughly the same as before the fork, but becomes split between two.</strong> </p>

<p>However, given the speculative nature of a sizeable proportion of the market, any small change may trigger large market movements, so it's anyone's guess as to what will actually happen.</p>

<p>After the fork, if you sell your BTC, then yes you will still have your B2X to sell (assuming that the wallet service you're using gives you access to it, or that you run your own wallet).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-03T01:28:09.160Z
2017-11-03T01:33:15.000Z
2017-11-03T01:33:15.000Z
Highly Irregular
<p>The number of coins technically doubles, but you are holding coins backed by different blockchain and miners</p>

<p>In an irrational market, the price of the forked coins can trade higher than what you may think as seen from <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-cash/usd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-cash/usd</a> and <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-gold/usd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-gold/usd</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-29T15:42:38.640Z
2018-01-29T15:42:38.640Z
sendoh
<p>Yes.
Hard fork with common history does mean free cryptocurrency in your wallet (or your exchange account, if the exchange supports both the original and the new cryptocurrency).</p>

<p>Common sense will tell us that the fiat value of one cryptocurrency after the fork should fall in proportion to the gain in the other, but this is not what was observed during Bitcoin Cash fork. One day after the fork BCH (Bitcoin Cash) was worth about 400 USD, while BTC (Bitcoin) has risen in price.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-03T02:01:34.887Z
2017-11-03T02:01:34.887Z
Ilia Gilmijarow
<p>Could anyone please explain to me how this fork will work? </p>

<p>Examples would be greatly appreciated. The way I'm understanding is, if I have 1 BTC on Coinbase, they will match it. So after the fork I will have my 1 BTC and 1 B2X (Bitcoin 2x). Let's just say I sold my 1 BTC, will I still have my 1 B2X to sell? Does this mean free money? </p>

<blockchain-fork><economic-theory>
Will I double my money after a bitcoin hard fork?
John
# Will I double my money after a bitcoin hard fork?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-03)

Could anyone please explain to me how this fork will work?

Examples would be greatly appreciated. The way I'm understanding is, if I have 1 BTC on Coinbase, they will match it. So after the fork I will have my 1 BTC and 1 B2X (Bitcoin 2x). Let's just say I sold my 1 BTC, will I still have my 1 B2X to sell? Does this mean free money?

**Tags:** blockchain-fork, economic-theory


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-11-03. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

**No, it doesn't mean free money.**

When a cryptocurrency forks into 2 separate cryptocurrencies, then the market sets the value for each.

Much of the value of Bitcoin is based on several things, such as the existing base of businesses that accept it, the efficacy and reliability of the developers maintaining it, and the familiarity by people that use it.

After a fork, that value becomes reduced, as many users or businesses pick one or the other to use.

New value may be created by new functionality added by the changes that caused the fork, or overall value (ie the sum of both forks) may become reduced due to a loss of trust in the system.

**A more reasonable expectation is probably that the overall value, between both forks, is roughly the same as before the fork, but becomes split between two.**

However, given the speculative nature of a sizeable proportion of the market, any small change may trigger large market movements, so it's anyone's guess as to what will actually happen.

After the fork, if you sell your BTC, then yes you will still have your B2X to sell (assuming that the wallet service you're using gives you access to it, or that you run your own wallet).


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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-29. Score: 1

The number of coins technically doubles, but you are holding coins backed by different blockchain and miners

In an irrational market, the price of the forked coins can trade higher than what you may think as seen from <https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-cash/usd> and <https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin-gold/usd>


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### Answer by username_3 on 2017-11-03. Score: 1

Yes.
Hard fork with common history does mean free cryptocurrency in your wallet (or your exchange account, if the exchange supports both the original and the new cryptocurrency).

Common sense will tell us that the fiat value of one cryptocurrency after the fork should fall in proportion to the gain in the other, but this is not what was observed during Bitcoin Cash fork. One day after the fork BCH (Bitcoin Cash) was worth about 400 USD, while BTC (Bitcoin) has risen in price.


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