Coinbase becomes the first publicly listed crypto company to join the S&P 500.
Why this matters
All ETF providers — Vanguard, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, JPMorgan Chase, VanEck, iShares, Fidelity — will add Coinbase equity ($COIN) to their ETFs that represent the S&P 500.
This means that your normal ETF holdings in your investment accounts, IRAs, and 401Ks now have exposure to crypto indirectly. Every passive investor who holds a broad market ETF now owns a slice of a crypto exchange.
What makes it more special
In order to get into the S&P 500, Coinbase replaced Discover Financial — a traditional financial institution. That's not just a milestone for crypto. It's a statement about where value is being created in financial services.
Coinbase went from being a startup that many traditional investors wouldn't touch to being included in the most important stock index in the world. The legitimacy this brings to the crypto industry as a whole is hard to overstate.