Poloniex announced Tuesday it will be the first cryptocurrency exchange to offer trading for the pending bitcoin cash (BCH) hard fork amid an ongoing debate over the technology's roadmap.

Starting Wednesday night, Poloniex, operated by Goldman Sachs-backed startup Circle, revealed it will begin offering customers the option to buy bitcoin cash ABC (BCHABC) and bitcoin cash SV (BCHSV) trading tokens.

This is the first time Poloniex has offered trading pairs for a crypto asset prior to a possible fork, a move it says is part of a wider strategy to increase the company's customer experience, according to a company blog post.

The post reads:

In the message, the exchange stressed its intention to remain neutral during the split in order to allow the community to decide which blockchain it will support, demonstrated through advanced trading activity. It also stated that it would be evaluating each hard fork individually to decide whether to support the fork or continue pre-fork trading.

Pre-fork trading has been made available for USDC/BCHSV and USDC/BCHABC as well as bitcoin trading pairs.

Customers will also be able to convert their BCH into an equivalent amount of BCHABC and BCHSV and vice versa if they wish to withdraw funds, but they will not be able to withdraw BCHABC and BCHSV ahead of the fork.

The exchange plans to continue supporting trading for both bitcoin cash ABC and SV after the planned fork on Nov. 15.

Overall, the news comes during what has been a slower trading day for the crypto asset, one that has surged of late on the news traders may be able to receive additional tokens through the creation of a competing blockchain, should the blockchain's users continue to support both versions of the technology.

At press time, the price of bitcoin cash is down 0.81 percent on the day.

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