On May 14, Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Invest, listed innovation-focused companies such as Coinbase, Tesla, Palantir, and Shopify as the leaders in transforming equity markets and blockchain technology, eliminating and replacing the traditional benchmarks. Wood also speculated that it was probable that benchmarks would chase innovation more quickly in the years to come. These remarks came after ARK analyst Frank Downing commented on ARK’s initial investment in Coinbase. Innovation-focused companies transformations equity markets and blockchain technology As for ARK’s original investment in Coinbase, Downing said that he had written a whitepaper with the exchange as far back as January 2017, well up to Series D at a $1.6 billion valuation. He praised Coinbase for its “effectiveness of new product development, the pace at which new products are coming to market, and how they cater to newly onboarded users,” He expressed. After that, Wood sounded similar notes, emphasizing that companies like Coinbase, which are in the vanguard of digital innovation, are pushing the envelope not just on traditional metrics but the benchmarks that investors use to track the market’s progress and activity. What this means for the future, Wood indicated that as innovation continues to speed up, benchmarks will need to change more readily, with the performance and values of their historical bundles adjusted more frequently. The comments were made following Coinbase’s announcement that it would be joining the S&P, which is a major step toward the crypto industry’s mainstream acceptance. In a previous 2023 ARK report, Wood projected that the S&P 500 would reach 6,400 in the next five years in a base case and 11,200 in a bull case, primarily due to the exponential growth of technology. Coinbase joins the S&P 500 index, a significant milestone in crypto world According to reports, Coinbase Global’s shares surged by almost 15% on May 13 after becoming the first player in digital assets to be included in the benchmark S&P 500 index. It will replace Discover Financial, a credit card issuer that Capital One acquires. The change will take effect before the start of trading on May 19. The action represents a significant turning point for an industry that was previously limited to the fringe of finance. Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau said this was a significant change for Coinbase and the industry. He added that it was also the model for other cryptocurrency companies hoping to go public and land a position in the S&P 500. Since President Donald Trump pledged to loosen regulations, cryptocurrency has quickly gained traction due to growing institutional interest. According to Oppenheimer analysts, who raised their price target to $293, they anticipated that Coinbase would benefit for some time from the inclusion of the S&P 500 as institutional investors took their time getting ready to buy the stock. Notably, the stock reached its highest level in almost three months during early trading, increasing the cryptocurrency exchange’s market value by over $8 billion. Since funds that track the benchmark index would have to include Coinbase in their portfolios, the inclusion might also increase demand for the company’s stock. Coinbase revealed a decline in first-quarter earnings last week. However, analysts have stated that a rebounding market might increase its momentum. To solidify its position as the biggest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange globally, the company has been aggressively growing its institutional investor base and establishing a presence in markets outside the United States.