Crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) is set to join the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) on May 19

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) shares rose in after-hours trading on Friday after Standard and Poor’s said crypto exchange will join the S&P 500 on May 19.

Coinbase will replace Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), which was recently acquired by Capital One Financial Corp (NYSE:COF), S&P Global said.

The crypto exchange will be the first and currently only crypto firm to make it into the index.

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest, publicly traded companies in the US, covering a wide range of industries and sectors. It is considered a broad measure of the overall US stock market.

Coinbase’s inclusion should increase demand for its stock because index funds and exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 must buy COIN shares to mirror the index.

The S&P 500 tracked an aggregate market cap of $49.8 trillion as of March 31. It is a market-cap-weighted index, giving more weight to larger firms such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). The bottom 400 companies, where Coinbase will likely be, are typically weighted between 0.01% and 0.2% of the overall index.

COIN shares immediately rose 8.8% to $225.4 following the announcement, Google Finance data shows. The company also finished the March 12 trading day up 4%, bringing its market cap to $52.8 billion.

Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas said the inclusion marked a “major milestone” for Coinbase and the broader crypto industry.

“We are honored to be joining the S&P 500, a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams in building a leading crypto platform,” Haas said in a statement.

Bitcoin-stacking firm Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) was also seen as an S&P 500 candidate last year. However, firms must have been profitable in the last calendar year and the most recent quarter to qualify.

Strategy posted a net loss of $4.2 billion for the first quarter of 2025 on May 1, suggesting it won’t be included any time soon.

Inclusion also requires companies to be trading on a large US stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, generating at least half of their revenues in the US, and having a market cap above $18 billion. Strategy satisfies these other requirements.