Kevin Loaec, a blockchain expert, has issued a warning that attempting to sell coins generated from a potential soft fork known as BIP-110 could result in the loss of actual bitcoins.
⚠️IMPORTANT⚠️In the next couple of days, a new shitcoin will fork off Bitcoin. It is a big security risk for people who just believe they will get an "airdrop" and want to sell it, to get more bitcoin.
— Kevin Loaec 🧙♂️🐟 (@KLoaec) August 6, 2026
I will write more about it, but here is the TLDR: 👇
The blockchain split will create a scenario of double accounting, where the same amount of assets will be reflected in both chains. Loaec believes that this situation could be exploited by malicious actors who might purchase coins from the new network using real bitcoins.
Initially, transactions will be valid on both versions. By signing the transfer of fork tokens, the seller inadvertently provides the buyer with a template for an identical operation on the main network.
This means that an equivalent amount will be deducted from the original wallet in real bitcoins, with fees being charged twice. Importantly, the wallet balance does not reset; the exact amount that was declared for sale will be lost.
Loaec suggested that large holders might be the first to face this risk. He emphasized that the only secure strategy is to keep assets stationary. To replicate a transaction, a signed operation is needed; without it, there is nothing to reproduce.
Bitcoin has previously undergone a similar hard fork. After the split with Bitcoin Cash in 2017, developers had to implement a special mechanism in the new network to prevent transaction transfers between chains. However, such protection is not included in the BIP-110 specification.
Why the Network Is on the Brink of Division
The dispute has been ongoing since the fall of 2025, when developers released Bitcoin Core v30 and increased the OP_RETURN field limit from 80 to 100,000 bytes. Critics argued that this change would facilitate the embedding of extraneous information in the blockchain, leading the Bitcoin Knots team to propose BIP-110 in December, which restricts the volume of non-payment data for a year.
For standard activation, the initiative must be confirmed by 1109 out of 2016 blocks. Currently, the BIP-110 tag is found in about 2.6% of blocks.
However, the authors have considered another scenario. Starting from block #961,632, which is expected on August 8, nodes implementing BIP-110 will begin rejecting blocks that lack the necessary tag. Since nearly all hash power does not implement it, these nodes will stop following the main chain.
Nonetheless, this alone will not create a new blockchain. Miners are needed to continue producing blocks according to the proposed rules. If there are none, an alternative chain will not emerge.
The restrictions of BIP-110 on non-payment data will take effect later—with block #965,664, anticipated in early September.
Until that time, both networks will be able to process the same transactions. To safely separate assets, a holder will first need to obtain coins that exist only on one branch and then use them to distinguish one balance from the other.
The speed of block production could shift both dates by about a day in either direction.
It is worth noting that in July, a co-founder of the Runestone project, known by the pseudonym Leonidas, introduced a Bitcoin client in opposition to BIP-110.