Digital currency exchange Coinbase sparked outrage in the cryptocurrency community earlier this week over its decision to not support the new Bitcoin hard fork, dubbed Bitcoin Cash.

Coinbase Director of Communications David Farmer noted in a recent blog post that not every asset (cryptocurrency) is immediately safe to add to Coinbase from a stability, security or compliance standpoint.

In the case of Bitcoin Cash, Farmer said they made it clear that they did not feel as if they could safely support it from launch day. For those that wanted immediate access to their Bitcoin Cash, the exchange advised them to withdraw their Bitcoins from the platform and go elsewhere (which many apparently did).

One activist group even threatened to file a class action lawsuit unless Coinbase released the Bitcoin Cash its users are entitled to.

Over the past few days, however, Coinbase weighed factors including customer demand, trading volumes and security and ultimately decided that they will work to add support for Bitcoin Cash. It won't happen overnight, however, as Farmer said they plan to have support in place by January 1, 2018 (assuming that nothing crazy happens in the interim).

Farmer said that once support is added, Coinbase customers will be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash. They'll make a determination at a later date, he said, with regard to adding trading support.

Photo courtesy Ulrich Baumgarten, Getty Images