Jon Southurst, writing for CoinDesk:

Coinbase has until now acted largely as a brokerage for bitcoin users. By expanding into this new vertical the company will be able to "offer greater security for individuals and institutions to trade bitcoin and monitor real-time pricing of the cryptocurrency", the company told the Wall Street Journal.

This is exciting news. I think this is a positive step to continue to legitimize Bitcoin. Coinbase also has a "To the Moon!" teaser page up right now counting down the launch of the exchange. It looks like it will be live at 9am EST tomorrow.