On August 8, 2026, the bitcoin network was split at the height of block #961,632 as a result of the activation of the controversial BIP-110 soft fork. The split occurred after the AntPool pool produced a block without a signal of support for this proposal, which was accepted by the main chain, but rejected by the nodes of the initiative's supporters. In response, they switched to an alternative branch formed by the Roughnecks miner through the Ocean pool at the same height. By the morning of August 9, the gap between the chains was 48 blocks: the main network reached a height of #961,687, while the fork stopped at #961,633. Both chains rely on a common predecessor, but differ in the sets of enabled transactions and validation rules.

The key technical problem for the offshoot chain was the mining difficulty parameter, updated on block #961,632 to 127.48 trillion. The fork chain has maintained this high rate, however, due to a critical shortage of computing power, the interblock interval has increased many times. The next planned difficulty adjustment will come only after 2016 blocks, which at the current rate of generation will last for 350 days, unlike the standard 14 days on the mainnet. To consolidate the BIP-110 rules, the branch needs to reach block #963,648, which looks unlikely at the current speed. The market reaction turned out to be restrained: the price of bitcoin decreased by only 0.4%, trading around $ 64,800, since the offer does not create a separate tradable token, and the exchanges have not announced its support.

The situation has caused polarization in the community of developers and miners. Supporters of the initiative, including Ocean technical director Luke Dashge and the author of the Dathon Ohm proposal, refuse to admit defeat, calling AntPool's actions an "attack on bitcoin" and claiming that the initiative remains "uncontested" due to the lack of a counter fork. At the same time, opponents such as Adam Back, co-founder of Blockstream, and David Bailey, head of Nakamoto, regard the incident as the final failure of the marginal soft fork and urge participants to return to work in the main ecosystem. Independent experts, including developer Kevin Loak, warn of the continuing risks for holders: due to the lack of replay protection, a transaction signed on one network may be maliciously reproduced on another, which poses the threat of double debit.