In less than six hours, zclassic will fork to create bitcoin private, a new privacy-oriented coin that uses zk-snarks to obfuscate transactions. Holders of bitcoin and zclassic will both be eligible to receive bitcoin private (BTCP) on a 1:1 basis. There's just one problem: 93% of all zlcassic (ZCL) is on Bittrex exchange, which until today had neglected to pass comment on whether it would support the fork. As the price of ZCL has dropped sharply, bagholders have expressed their anger at Bittrex' slowness to act.

Also read: Bitcoin Private Fork Aiming to Make Bitcoin More Anonymous

Bitcoin Private Angers the Public

Bitcoin private has been a long time coming, with the fork of zclassic announced back in December of last year. Since then, traders have been steadily accumulating ZCL, causing its price to rise from $4 in early December to a high of almost $200. Everyone knew that ZCL would dump hard, but few expected it to do so before the fork. In the last 48 hours that's what's happened though, as the coin has plunged to a low of $73, a drop of 50% in less than a week.

It had been widely assumed – or at least hoped – that Bittrex would support the fork. Given that 93% of the trading volume comes from the U.S. exchange, it has the power to largely make or break the launch of bitcoin private. As ZCL bagholders have vented their frustrations, other traders have crowed about selling the coin days ago, leading to acrimony. The fork is scheduled to take place on February 28 around 5pm UTC.

The exchange finally broke its silence just hours before the fork was due to occur. In a statement, it wrote: "Bittrex will NOT be supporting the market for Bitcoin Private but due to issues with the Zclassic wallet, we will offer Zclassic holders on Bittrex partial support through claiming and withdrawing BTCP…Bittrex will suspend the Zclassic market approximately 15 minutes before the snapshot time and perform an on-exchange snapshot of ZCL balances. The market will re-open after 5pm UTC once the on-exchange snapshot is complete."