The payment processor and bitcoin wallet Coinbase will launch a US-based bitcoin exchange called Lunar, which has already been approved by state financial regulators in half of the country, including California and New York, according to the Wall Street Journal publication.

The news of Coinbase’s expansion in the US comes shortly after the announcement of another regulated exchange set up by the Winklevoss brothers last week, shedding new light on Benjamin Lawsky's allusion to some well-funded institutional exchanges launching early 2015 in NY.

The new exchange will be backed by the major investment of $75 million from New York Stock Exchange, banks, and venture capitalists that was announced by Coinbase last week. The company plans to expand to all states as well as overseas. “Our goal is to become the world’s largest exchange,” said Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase.

Lunar will provide Americans with their own domestic exchange, removing the need to transfer US dollars to foreign bitcoin exchanges, the largest being Bitstamp and BTC-e in Europe and Bitfinex in China. It will also allow to trade bitcoin and monitor the cryptocurrency’s price in real time, the company told the WSJ.