Coinbase implied that Bitcoin Cash withdrawals would be available by Jan 1st. That could mean directly starting on Jan 1st or even before. It seemed to be a high probability bet that they wouldn't just allow withdrawals, but also trading. So, them allowing BCH trading already in December shouldn't have been anything unexpected. Combining this with the fact that they shortly had BCH on their API just few days a go, it was a signal for a lot of people to buy Bitcoin Cash, as they knew it is going to be only a matter of days/a week. That buying force could have easily counteracted the selling force on the market and most possibly been the reason for the run-up before the announcement. Could have easily also been the Bitcoin mempool congestion and recent +$20 average transaction fees which drove people away from BTC and onto BCH.
I am also almost certain that someone on the Coinbase team couldn't keep the secret hidden and told his/her friends or family about the event. Coinbase has a lot of employees, it would be almost impossible to keep a secret that big with over 50 employees (probably few hundred by now, but I doubt everyone in the company was aware). Just a few select employees talking to some friends, might have caused maybe maximum ~100 buyers in a $50B market cap asset. Not much Coinbase's fault. They 100% told employees to keep it a secret and also have something relevant to that in their employee contracts. Insader trading happened, but most probably at a small scale that didn't affect the market much and wasn't Coinbases intention.
Some people have a problem with the fact that Coinbase didn't announce it beforehand. I don't see that announcing it a week before would have made a difference. The result would have been a similar pump, only a week in advance. This with the added factor, that Coinbase customers wouldn't even have the chance to get in on the pump from the start.
Coinbase however does have too much of a monopoly. No debating about that. But even Brian Armstrong has stated that he welcomes competition as it would make the crypto sphere healthier.
So, why the hell do we have so much hatred on Coinbase all of a sudden?
EDIT: I got instantly downvoted when I submitted this post. No way the downvoter read my whole text within 15 seconds.
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