Blockchain specialist Kevin Loaec has warned that attempting to sell coins received as a result of the potential soft fork BIP-110 could lead to the loss of real 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 double balance situation: the same amount of assets will simultaneously be reflected on both chains. According to Loaec, this is exactly what malicious actors could exploit by buying up the coins of the new network for real bitcoins.
In the early stage, transactions are valid on both versions. By signing a transfer of fork tokens, the seller inadvertently provides the buyer with a ready-made template for an identical operation on the main network.
As a result, an equivalent amount is deducted from the same address, but in real bitcoins, and fees are deducted twice. Meanwhile, the wallet is not zeroed out—exactly the amount offered for sale is lost.
The developer suggested that large holders might be the first to be at risk. According to him, the only reliable strategy is to keep assets unmoved. To copy a transaction, a signed operation is needed; if it doesn't exist, there's nothing to reproduce.
Bitcoin has already been through a similar hard fork. After the separation of Bitcoin Cash in 2017, developers had to build a special mechanism into the new network to prevent the transfer of transactions between chains. The BIP-110 specification lacks such protection.
Why the Network is on the Verge of a Split
The dispute dates back to the fall of 2025, when developers released Bitcoin Core v30 and raised the OP_RETURN field limit from 80 to 100,000 bytes. Critics argued that the change would make it easier to place extraneous information on the blockchain, so in December the Bitcoin Knots team proposed BIP-110, which limits the volume of non-payment data for one year.
For standard activation, the initiative must be confirmed by 1109 out of 2016 blocks. Currently, about 2.6% of blocks contain the BIP-110 flag.
However, the authors envisioned another scenario. Starting from block #961,632, expected on August 8, nodes with BIP-110 will begin rejecting blocks without the required flag. Since almost the entire hash rate does not set it, these nodes will stop following the main chain.
This in itself will not create a new blockchain. For a split to occur, miners are needed who will continue to mine blocks according to the proposal's rules. If there are none, an alternative chain will not appear.
The BIP-110 restrictions on non-payment data will come into effect later—from block #965,664, expected in early September.
Until that point, both networks will be able to accept the same operations. To safely separate assets, the owner will first have to obtain coins that exist only on one branch and then use them to separate one balance from the other.
The block mining rate could shift both dates by about a day in either direction.
Recall that in July, the co-founder of the Runestone project, under the pseudonym Leonidas, presented a Bitcoin client as a counter to BIP-110.
Not About Spam: Why Michael Saylor and Adam Back Are Fighting BIP-110
