Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) surged over 8% on Monday after market closing on news that the stock will be included in the broad-market S&P 500 stock index.

The company would replace Discover Financial starting on May 19, according to an S&P press release. Discover Financial is being acquired by Capital One.

The S&P 500 tracks 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. across several sectors, including tech, healthcare, finance and more. Prominent names in the index include Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. COIN, at a market cap of nearly $53 billion, currently trades on the Nasdaq exchange.

The inclusion would be a significant milestone for the digital asset industry, giving millions of average investors and model portfolios exposure to a crypto-focused company.

«COIN about to be in every portfolio in America,» Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at asset manager Bitwise, said in an X post. «The S&P 500 inclusion is going to force 7x the daily trading volume into [the] stock.»

Shares of the company jumped to as high as $225 following the reports, up 8.6% in post-market hours and adding to the nearly 4% gain on Monday.

UPDATE (May 12, 21:50 UTC): Adds analyst comment, detail about Capital One acquiring Discover Financial.

Education tech firm Classover Holdings (KIDZ) said in early May that it would sell $400 million worth of shares to buy solana. Its stock exploded higher. Shares of the thinly traded company, then with a market cap well shy of $50 million soared from $1.15 to more than $7 in just two sessions before settling back to the current $3.69. .

Classover wasn’t the first company to experience the crypto surge, and it won’t be the last.

A growing number of obscure, microcap and nanocap companies are embracing cryptocurrency — not as a business line or payment method, but as a headline-grabbing balance sheet item. They often follow the same script: an announcement of a shift in strategy to hold digital assets like bitcoin or solana, followed by a pop in the stock price.

Today, GD Culture Group (GDC), a company with a market cap of around $30 million, announced plans to sell up to $300 million in shares to buy bitcoin and TrumpCoin (TRUMP), a meme token themed around U.S. President Donald Trump. The company declared that this purchase was part of its new “crypto asset treasury strategy.” The stock rose 13% on the news.

Also today, Amber International Holdings (AMBR), valued at just under $900 million, said it would allocate $100 million to a basket of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ethereum ETH, solana, XRP, Binance Coin BNB and sui SUI.

All are attempting to mimic the original corporate crypto evangelist: Strategy (MSTR). In August 2020, the enterprise-software company pivoted to using bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. Since then, its stock has soared more than 3,000%, fueled not by software sales or product innovation, but the price of bitcoin. Many retail investors now treat the stock as a proxy for bitcoin exposure.

But while Strategy had a longstanding business and a consistent, transparent strategy — in addition to its chairman, Michael Saylor, emerging early as a bitcoin proponent — these newer companies appear to be leveraging the crypto hype machine with little track record or follow-through.

Take Worksport, a Nasdaq-listed manufacturer of truck bed covers. Last year, the company announced plans to invest its cash reserves into bitcoin and XRP. Its stock, which had been sliding for years, jumped after the announcement. But the rally didn’t last, and the stock has since returned to pre-announcement levels. The company said in April that it had made a six figure initial purchase.

“We are still bullish on our initial positions and have been holding. We will consider adding in the future as appropriate,” a spokesperson told CoinDesk at the time.

The playbook seems straightforward: Find a buzzy crypto token, announce a purchase or strategic allocation, then ride the temporary surge in retail investor attention. In many cases, the amount the company plans to invest vastly exceeds its own market capitalization. That was true for Classover and GD Culture, both of which proposed multi-hundred-million-dollar allocations despite being worth a fraction of that.

It’s unclear whether these companies will actually make their proposed purchases or how they plan to raise the funds. But the market’s reaction points to a pattern: Microcap firms are using crypto as a megaphone.

Still, the tactic is proving effective in the short term. As long as the market rewards crypto-related headlines with stock rallies, small companies are likely to continue jumping on the bandwagon.

Whether any of them become long-term crypto believers like Strategy remains to be seen.

There are, however, some firms that appear to be taking the Strategy route more seriously — and seeing results. Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has steadily grown its bitcoin holdings to 6,796 since launching its Bitcoin Treasury Operations in April 2024, positioning itself as one of the more committed corporate holders in Asia.

Similarly, U.S.-based medical device company Semler Scientific has been buying bitcoin consistently since adopting it as a reserve asset. It now holds 3,634 BTC on its balance sheet, reflecting a strategy that mirrors MicroStrategy’s playbook rather than simply borrowing its headlines.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

NEW YORK, NY — New York Mayor Eric Adams is making a pitch to crypto companies returning to the U.S. or expanding their presence in the country: set up shop in New York City.

“This is the Empire State,” Adams said at a press briefing at Gracie Mansion on Monday. “We should be looking forward to building empires, particularly in the crypto space.”

Adams, who is running for reelection, reiterated his commitment to making New York City a crypto hub, telling reporters that he would work with tech and crypto companies, both big and small, to create a friendly environment to attract them and help them succeed.

“My goal remains the same as it was on day one as mayor: making New York City the crypto capital of the globe,” Adams said. His remarks echo similar pledges from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”

Adams is also taking inspiration from Trump in another way: next week, he’s hosting New York City’s first-ever Crypto Summit, which he said will bring together city officials and representatives from the crypto industry to discuss ways the city can benefit from crypto — and vice versa. In an April press release announcing the summit, Adam’s administration described the event as “com[ing] on the heels of the White House Digital Asset Summit in March.”

“We’re going to attract world-class talent, provide opportunities for underbanked communities, and make government more user-friendly,” Adams said. “We are focused on the long term values of these technologies for our city and its people, not chasing memes or trends.”

Earlier this year, Trump’s appointed officials at the Department of Justice directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to drop corruption charges against Adams, leading to an exodus of career prosecutors. The charges were dismissed with prejudice by a judge.

New York’s crypto industry — as well as its banking and insurance industries — is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which has a reputation as a tough regulator. NYDFS issues the notoriously difficult-to-get Bitlicense, a special license required to do business as a crypto company in New York. In the past, Adams has been critical of the Bitlicense, claiming that it stifled regulation and advocating for scrapping it shortly after taking office as mayor in 2022.

When asked about New York’s regulatory environment on Monday, however, Adams seemed to strike a more conciliatory tone towards NYDFS, saying that “it’s good to know that the city is going to have safe regulations in place for those who are investing, and there’s not going to be any abuses.”

“But at the same time, we can overregulate and prevent growth,” Adams added. “There’s a level of safety that comes with the right regulations, but overregulations can hurt this industry and we don’t want that to happen.”