ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood applauded Coinbase Global Inc. COIN on its inclusion in the S&P 500 index, marking the first cryptocurrency company to achieve this milestone.

What Happened: Wood responded to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong‘s announcement by congratulating both him and the company on X, calling the recognition “well deserved.”

She noted that while active managers like ARK Invest rely on fundamental research rather than index providers to select stocks, the inclusion of Coinbase in a major index would force index-tracking funds to take notice. “Index-sensitive managers will be compelled to consider COIN now,” Wood wrote.

The S&P 500 addition represents a watershed moment for cryptocurrency legitimacy in traditional finance, potentially forcing index fund managers to allocate capital to the digital asset space.

Armstrong highlighted this achievement as validation that “crypto is here to stay,” reflecting growing mainstream acceptance of the asset class despite its historically volatile nature.

See Also: S&P 500 Rallies Over 3% On US-China 90-Day Tariff Truce, But Experts Warn It ‘Doesn’t Guarantee A Complete Resolution Of The Trade War’

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Why It Matters: Wood has maintained an exceptionally bullish outlook on cryptocurrency markets, recently reiterating ARK’s forecast of Bitcoin BTC/USD reaching between $700,000 and $750,000 by 2030 in her base case, with a bull case target of $1.5 million.

She attributes this dramatic growth potential to Bitcoin’s capacity to capture market share from gold, increasing institutional adoption and emerging market applications.

This S&P 500 inclusion comes amid Coinbase’s aggressive expansion efforts, including its recent $2.9 billion acquisition of crypto options exchange Deribit and the launch of 24/7 trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETH/USD futures through its Commodity Futures Trading Commission -regulated exchange, making it the first regulated U.S. exchange to offer around-the-clock access to leveraged crypto derivatives.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.