Coinbase set to join S&P 500, becoming the first crypto company added to the benchmark index
Coinbase shares were as much as 10% higher in premarket trading on Tuesday after the news that the company will join the closely watched S&P 500 index.
The crypto exchange will replace Discover in the benchmark index before trading opens on May 19, as the financial services company is in the process of being acquired by Capital One.
With that, Coinbase becomes the first crypto company to join the S&P 500, reflecting how the exchange, and the wider crypto universe itself, has become a bigger part of the US financial system since the company went public in 2021. Last week, bitcoin spiked past the $100,000 price point as traders bought the coins through exchanges and increasingly popular bitcoin ETFs such as Blackrock’s IBIT, which now holds more than 600,000 bitcoin, or some 2.8% of the total supply.
The news also comes a week after Coinbase announced its plans to buy Deribit, the world’s biggest crypto options trading platform, based in Dubai, for a whopping $2.9 billion — the largest crypto deal to date.
This morning’s upward move undoes some of the weakness in Coinbase shares this year, which had dropped ~17% as of yesterday’s close.
With that, Coinbase becomes the first crypto company to join the S&P 500, reflecting how the exchange, and the wider crypto universe itself, has become a bigger part of the US financial system since the company went public in 2021. Last week, bitcoin spiked past the $100,000 price point as traders bought the coins through exchanges and increasingly popular bitcoin ETFs such as Blackrock’s IBIT, which now holds more than 600,000 bitcoin, or some 2.8% of the total supply.
The news also comes a week after Coinbase announced its plans to buy Deribit, the world’s biggest crypto options trading platform, based in Dubai, for a whopping $2.9 billion — the largest crypto deal to date.
This morning’s upward move undoes some of the weakness in Coinbase shares this year, which had dropped ~17% as of yesterday’s close.
