XBT guide ยท updated 2026-11-15

Split your coins and keep BTC and XBT separate

Quick version

  1. BTC and XBT are two separate coins: give each its own wallet and its own new seed.
  2. Held bitcoin before August 8, 2026? Split first (Method 1 below) before you move anything.
  3. Never send XBT to a BTC address or BTC deposit, or the reverse. Label every wallet.

Protect your bitcoin first. Touch the XBT second. Take your time: nothing expires.

Who needs the split steps: only people who held bitcoin before Aug 8, in coins confirmed in block 961,631 or earlier. If your bitcoin came after the split, or your XBT came from an exchange, skip the split steps, but still follow Keep BTC and XBT separate.

Golden rule: never type a seed that still guards bitcoin into new or unfamiliar software. Move your BTC to a fresh wallet first. Nobody needs your seed to “claim” anything.

Keep BTC and XBT separate

BTC and XBT are two separate coins on two separate chains. Because the chains share all history before the split, the same keys can control coins on both. Keeping them apart protects you from replay, mix-ups and scams.

The rules

  1. Separate wallets, separate new seeds. Your BTC lives in a brand-new BTC wallet. Your XBT lives in a brand-new XBT-only wallet (Start here, step 1). Never give one seed both jobs.
  2. One address, one coin. BTC and XBT addresses look identical. Take each receive address fresh from the wallet for that coin, and never use one address for both.
  3. Split first. If you held bitcoin before the split, follow Method 1 below before you move anything, so a spend on one chain can’t be replayed on the other.
  4. Label your wallets clearly, for example “BTC savings” and “XBT only”. Shrike still says “BTC” in places; what it holds is XBT.
  5. Don’t cross the streams. Never send XBT to a BTC address or an exchange’s BTC deposit address, or BTC to an XBT one. On an exchange, confirm the network says Bitcoin BLAKE2b / BIP110 for XBT. Send a small test first.
  6. Watch the ticker. On Kraken and other large platforms, “XBT” means ordinary bitcoin, not the XBT in this guide. On small exchanges the fork coin may show as XBT, BTCB2 or BIP110.

How to tell if your coins are already separated

  1. Find the transaction that paid you the coin and read its block height on a BTC block explorer.
  2. Height 961,632 or higher: search the same transaction ID on mempool.guide. Not found means the coin is BTC-only, so it’s already separate. Found means it was replayed onto XBT, so you have XBT there as well.
  3. Height 961,631 or lower: the coin exists on both chains under the same keys, unless it has already been spent on one of them. It is not separated yet. Split it with Method 1 below.
  4. Already split? Your split transaction should appear on a BTC explorer but not on mempool.guide, and your old address should still show its XBT on mempool.guide. If so, your coins are separated.

Sources: xbt.live claim guide (golden rule, checking a transaction ID on an XBT explorer); xbt.live cold storage guide (shared history up to block 961,632); block hashes checked on mempool.space and mempool.guide on November 15, 2026. More: safety checklist.

Why the order matters: replay

A normal bitcoin transaction from a pre-split wallet is also valid on XBT, so anyone can copy it to the other chain. That’s a replay. Three things stop it, and each split method below uses one:

Sources: xbt.live cold storage guide (updated 2026-10-08), xbt.live claim and sell guide (2026-10-08).

Before you start

Method 1 (recommended for most): move your BTC first, with a BTC-only coin

  1. Make a brand-new BTC wallet. New seed, written on paper or steel. This is where your bitcoin lives from now on.
  2. Get a small Bitcoin-only coin. Withdraw about $20 of BTC from an exchange to your old wallet.
  3. Check that the coin really is Bitcoin-only. Exchanges often pay out old, unsplit coins. Search the withdrawal’s transaction ID on an XBT block explorer. Not found: good. Found: it exists on both chains and won’t protect you, so withdraw again (another exchange helps) and recheck.
  4. Send everything in one transaction. This step is on the BTC chain, so regular Sparrow is fine here. In Sparrow, use coin control (UTXOs tab): select all your old coins plus the checked $20 coin, and send the full amount to an address in your new wallet.
  5. Wait for it to confirm on Bitcoin. Your BTC is now split, under keys that never touched XBT software.
  6. Confirm your XBT stayed put. Search your transaction ID on an XBT explorer: it should not appear. Then check an old address on XBT: your balance from block 961,632 should still be there. If the transaction did appear, it was replayed. Nothing is lost, but the new wallet now holds both, so repeat from the new wallet with a checked coin.
  7. Open the old wallet on XBT. In Shrike, connected to your own Knots node (Set up Shrike, step 5), connect the old hardware wallet or restore the old seed, which no longer guards any bitcoin. From now on, that seed is XBT-only.
  8. Move the XBT to your new XBT wallet, small test first, so each coin has its own keys for good. Shrike’s quick start says the same: send pre-split coins to yourself once.

Source: xbt.live claim and sell guide, Steps 1–3.

Method 2: move your BTC with an OP_RETURN over 83 bytes

BitcoinBIP110.org’s user guide calls this “currently, the safest way to perform a coin separation”: send your BTC from your pre-split address to a new address you control, in a transaction that also carries an OP_RETURN (a small data output) of more than 83 bytes. XBT’s rules don’t allow OP_RETURN outputs over 83 bytes, so that transaction can only confirm on BTC. Only your BTC moves.

  1. Make a brand-new BTC wallet, as in Method 1.
  2. Build one transaction on the BTC side that spends all your old coins to the new BTC wallet and adds an OP_RETURN output larger than 83 bytes. No extra BTC-only coin is needed.
  3. Wait for it to confirm on Bitcoin, then check the same two things as Method 1: the transaction does not appear on mempool.guide, and your old address still shows its XBT there.
  4. Carry on from Method 1, step 7: open the old wallet on XBT and move the XBT to your new XBT wallet.

What we couldn’t confirm: the BitcoinBIP110.org page doesn’t name a wallet or the clicks for adding an OP_RETURN that large; it points to a Bitcoin University video, “Protecting Yourself From Bitcoin Replay Attacks”. We haven’t tested a wallet that does it, so if yours has no clear option for it, use Method 1. Two more points from the sources: Bitcoin Core 30 and later relay OP_RETURN data this large by default (release notes), though older or stricter BTC nodes may not; and BIP-110 calls its rules a “temporary, one-year deployment” (BIP-110), so this method only works while XBT still enforces the 83-byte limit. Test with a small amount first.

Sources: BitcoinBIP110.org user guide, Chapter 4: Coin Separation; BIP-110 (OP_RETURN outputs up to 83 bytes). Checked 2026-11-15.

Method 3: move the XBT first with SIGHASH_UNIFIED

The xbt.live cold storage guide, citing the Bitcoin Knots release notes, gives the reverse order:

  1. Spend the XBT copy first with a wallet that signs with unified sighash (Knots, Sparrow BLAKE2b build, Shrike, or the SeedSigner XBT firmware), sending it to a new XBT-only wallet.
  2. Wait for it to confirm on XBT. That transaction can’t be replayed onto Bitcoin.
  3. Your bitcoin is untouched and can be spent normally later.

The catch with Method 3: to sign on XBT you have to put the old keys to work in XBT software while they still guard your bitcoin. That breaks the golden rule unless the keys stay on a hardware wallet and the XBT software only sees the public key. And stock hardware-wallet firmware can’t make this signature (device table). If you’d have to type your seed, use Method 1.

Source: xbt.live cold storage guide, “Pre-fork coins: split before you spend”.

Avoid

Done splitting? Go back to your path to move your XBT into your new wallet, or gather several wallets with Withdraw and consolidate.

← Set up Shrike Next: Exchanges → Back to Start here

Not financial or tax advice. This guide is education only. Splitting, selling or trading fork coins may be a taxable event where you live; talk to a tax professional. The XBT wallets and firmware mentioned are new, community-built and unaudited. Test with small amounts; you are responsible for your own keys. We never ask for seeds, keys or money. See sources.