Coinbase will not support Bitcoin Cash. As such, they state that anyone holding Bitcoin Core (BTC) on Coinbase, if there is a bitcoin split on August 1, 2017, will not receive matching Bitcoin Cash (BCC) coins.
First, let's try to reason. Sure, there are many technical challenges and security issues with supporting another chain in such a short time. And perhaps Coinbase is saying, "screw BCC. It is not a serious coin, it will not receive serious support, and we want them to fade away. BCC will simply be another crapcoin and we don't support $hitcoins."
Regardless, for whatever reasons, Coinbase will not support BCC.
But if the bitcoin holders do not get the BCC coins, then who gets them? What happens to the newly created BCC coins?
Because Coinbase controls all the private keys for all the bitcoin users at the exchange, Coinbase will get control to the entire horde of BCC coins created on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. If Coinbase will not give them to the rightful users, what will Coinbase do with them?
A )They cannot possibly consider doing nothing. That would be idiotic. The coins have value. And if they dislike BCC, by holding the coins from the market, they are helping to inflate its value by reducing the trading supply.
B ) If Coinbase is clever, they should unload all the BCC over the next few weeks and capture as much profit as possible. Here, they capture profit/value and they reduce the value by flooding the market with more BCC coins.
Let's assume that Coinbase is clever. But what in the hell are they going to do with all the BCC profit?
C ) If they keep it all, they are shady and a bunch of thieves.
D ) The best thing, in my mind, is for them to sell all the BCC coins quietly and then distribute all the profits to the Bitcoin users who deserve them.
E) Another alternative is to give out the profits to charity.
#A is the worst scenario.
What are they really doing with the BCC behind the scenes? They must reveal this, otherwise, they are #C.
Let's see what happens ...