From Fringe to Foundation: Coinbase’s Debut Signals Crypto’s Coming of Age

For years, digital assets carried a whiff of skepticism in traditional finance circles – a perceived “taboo stain” that serious institutions were hesitant to touch. Many remembered the early days of Bitcoin’s wild price swings, high-profile exchange hacks, and regulators sounding alarms. Crypto companies struggled for mainstream respect; a large pension fund or bank wouldn’t want to be caught with a crypto exchange on its balance sheet.

But Coinbase’s S&P 500 inclusion emphatically wipes away much of that historical stigma. It signals that crypto businesses have matured into credible, profitable enterprises worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Fortune 500 stalwarts. Inclusion in the S&P isn’t arbitrary – a company must meet strict criteria for market capitalization, liquidity, financial viability and sustained profitability. By meeting those standards, Coinbase essentially earned a mainstream seal of approval, demonstrating that a company built on crypto can be as fundamentally sound as any in traditional finance.

Just a few years ago, major indices and investors kept digital asset companies at arm’s length. Now we have Indices effectively declaring that at least one crypto firm has “made it” into the upper echelon of public companies. The symbolism is powerful.

In practical terms, it means Wall Street’s perception of crypto has undergone a dramatic turnaround. What was once seen as a risky curiosity is now recognized as a permanent fixture. Legacy institutions – from investment funds to brokerage houses – are increasingly engaging with blockchain infrastructure, exploring digital custody solutions, and even trading tokenized assets. With Coinbase now in the same index as banks and tech giants, the message is clear: crypto and digital assets are now a credible part of global finance’s fabric, woven into indexes and portfolios worldwide.

Moreover, Coinbase’s induction may pave the way for other digital asset firms to join major indices in the future. It’s a precedent that says crypto companies can graduate from the periphery to the very core of equity markets. The “taboo” has truly been, at least to a large degree, broken.

Mainstream Milestones: Wall Street and Payment Giants Embrace Crypto

Coinbase ’s S&P 500 debut isn’t happening in isolation. It caps off a series of milestones that have steadily blurred the line between traditional finance (TradFi) and the crypto world. Over the past two years, some of the biggest names in global finance and tech have made decisive moves to integrate digital assets into their offerings, further validating that crypto is here to stay. Consider just a few of these developments:

• In 2024, BlackRock  – the world’s largest asset manager – launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which smashed industry records by amassing over $50 billion in assets within 11 months. The fund’s meteoric growth made it the largest Bitcoin exchange-traded product and signaled enormous institutional appetite for crypto exposure. By mid-2024, Bitcoin ETFs accounted for 26% of BlackRock’s total ETF inflows (and an astonishing 56% of Fidelity’s). This surge of crypto ETFs gave traditional investors a regulated, familiar way to dip into digital assets, effectively bridging Wall Street and crypto markets.
• Fidelity Investments  pushed forward with its Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC) and other digital asset initiatives. Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin fund saw roughly $8.9 billion in inflows in its first five months, and by mid-2024 Bitcoin ETFs made up more than half of Fidelity’s ETF inflows. Fidelity has also been building out institutional custody and trading services for cryptocurrencies. When firms like BlackRock and Fidelity – who manage trillions in traditional assets – vote with their feet in favor of crypto, it dramatically removes remaining skepticism. Even Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO and once a vocal Bitcoin doubter, admitted in 2024: “Bitcoin is a legitimate financial instrument” and a form of “digital gold” worthy of institutional portfolios.
• In 2023, PayPal  launched its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). This was a watershed moment: a mainstream payments company creating a cryptocurrency for use by its hundreds of millions of users. PYUSD allows instant, 1-to-1 dollar-value transfers on blockchain and is integrated into PayPal alongside Bitcoin, Ether and other assets. It marked a major milestone: stablecoins and crypto are no longer fringe—they’re just part of the product suite.
• Visa has actively integrated stablecoins like USDC into its settlement operations, leveraging fast, low-cost blockchains to settle millions of dollars for merchants and acquirers globally. Visa executives have framed this as a step toward “modernizing money movement” for cross-border payments. Visa and Mastercard have also launched crypto-linked cards and reward programs, showing that crypto isn’t just for tech-savvy investors – it’s becoming embedded in daily financial life.
• Major custodians like BNY have launched digital asset custody platforms, allowing institutions to safely store and move cryptocurrencies. This removes a critical barrier for large players to enter the market. In parallel, stablecoins and tokenization platforms are building the infrastructure needed for blockchain-based finance to interface with traditional systems. Crypto is no longer the rebel – it’s becoming the rails.

Seriously, the examples are literally endless. I am picking a handful so as to not bore you, the reader to death, but you can read more of my thoughts regarding digital assets every Monday.

Adapt or Be Left Behind: A Warning to the Skeptics

The convergence of traditional finance and crypto is no longer speculative – it’s structural. And that carries a warning for any institutions still refusing to acknowledge crypto’s rise. In 2025, to ignore crypto is akin to ignoring the internet in 2000 – a recipe for irrelevance.

The past year has shown a “join or miss out” dynamic: those who integrated digital assets reaped the benefits of new revenue streams, broader client bases, and improved tech infrastructure, while those who stayed on the sidelines watched innovation pass them by.

Regulators and policymakers are also coming around (albeit cautiously), providing clearer frameworks that remove excuses for institutional inaction. With reputable players in the game and safeguards maturing, the barrier to entry for traditional institutions is lower than ever.

Let me be clear: The taboo is gone. The credibility is proven. The demand is undeniable. This is no longer a game of maybe's. This is the new reality.

Crypto is not an outsider anymore, but an integral part of the financial structure. Coinbase joining the S&P 500 is just the latest sign that the walls are down and a new, hybrid financial era is taking shape. The old skeptics have less and less to point to as justification for shunning digital assets.

Final Thought

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em – or better yet, index them.

Coinbase’s addition to the S&P 500 isn’t just a victory for one company – it’s a milestone for an entire industry. The bulls of Wall Street and the bulls of crypto are finally running in the same direction. And those still waiting for crypto to “go away” might want to check the index — it’s already here.