This weekend sees the scheduled release date of Bitcoin Core version 30 (v30) and an incredibly contentious moment in Bitcoin’s history.
Although reports of alleged plans for a hard fork have circulated in the run-up to this controversial software release, it is technically possible — albeit incredibly unlikely — that Bitcoin could experience a blockchain split.
In the event of a surprise chain fork, the role of spot exchange traded fund (ETF) sponsors in judging which chain will retain the bitcoin name and its BTC ticker symbol is underreported and poorly understood.
Regulatory filings for US-based BTC spot ETFs reveal that their sponsors have the discretion to choose which Bitcoin fork they regard as the valid one in the event of a hard fork.
This upends the usual practice of letting miners or node operators decide, which usually choose the fork with the…
