In a turn of events Coinbase as decided to support Bitcoin Cash. Coinbase released a communication to its customers stating that they will now support the forked crypto and that users BCH that they were entititled to are safe. Users will begin to access the coins starting January 2018 per the statement from Coin base.
In my opinion I believe Coinbase faced so much negative backlash from customers regarding their decision not to intially support the new forked Bitcoin. Many customer flet they were losing out on the new coins and there was speculation from others that Coinbase would not rightly give the coins to its customers but keep them and sell them for their own profit. Many in the crypto community were not happy about this. So, in my opinion to mitigate the reputational harm Coinbase decided to grant customers access to the coin.
No one knows for sure what the end game was for Coinbase and their customers Bitcoin Cash. But it is responsible to think that out of an abundance of caution Coinbase did not want to support something they weren't to familiar with. I think this is a great move for Coinbase. This will ensure customer trust and customer will finally benefit from the new coin.