Bitcoin May Split 50 Times in 2018 as Forking Craze Mounts

Bitcoin forks are often easier than initial coin offerings
‘I feel like bitcoin forks are kind of the new alt coin’

BitBull Capital CEO Joe DiPasquale discusses Bitcoin’s plunge and global regulation of cryptocurrencies.(Source: Bloomberg)

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By Olga Kharif

January 23, 2018 at 10:00 AM UTC

Updated on

January 24, 2018 at 1:34 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Bitcoin God arrived last month. Bitcoin Pizza was delivered in January. Bitcoin Private’s issuance date is... still a secret.

They’re just a few of the growing stable of so-called forks -- a type of spinoff in which developers clone Bitcoin’s software, release it with a new name, a new coin and possibly a few new features. Often, the idea is to capitalize on the public’s familiarity with Bitcoin to make some serious money, at least virtually.