Coinbase, the leading US cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired Echo, a platform that allows communities to raise capital for early-stage projects and startups.
Coinbase has reached a $375 million deal to acquire Echo, a crowdfunding platform founded by cryptocurrency trader Jordan Fish, known in the community as Cobie, the company announced on Tuesday.
The acquisition came the day after Coinbase sent $25 million worth of USDC (USDC) to Cobie’s wallet to acquire and burn a non-fungible token (NFT) and revive his UpOnly podcast.
“I certainly didn’t think Echo would sell to Coinbase, but here we are: today Coinbase bought Echo for around $375 million,” Cobie wrote in X.
Ethena was the first project he proposed with Echo
The acquisition came less than two years after Cobie launched Launched in beta in April 2024 with the mission of enabling communities to invest together in private funding rounds.
In the eight months since its launch, the platform has raised at least $51 million in funding, with 131 deals closed, including that of Ethena, a synthetic dollar protocol behind one of the fastest-growing yielding stablecoins on the market, USDe (USDE).
According to Cobie, Ethena was the first project to raise funding using Echo, highlighting the platform’s strong focus on early-stage investing.
In May, echo inserted Sonar, a software product that allows founders to host public token sales on their own terms and preferred blockchains such as Hyperliquid, Base, Solana or Cardano.
Echo will remain independent… “for now”
Following the Coinbase acquisition, Echo will remain an “independent platform under its current brand for now,” Cobie said in an X post on Tuesday, adding that the Sonar product will be integrated into Coinbase.
The integration will “probably” introduce new ways for founders to access investors, while investors will have those new investment opportunities on Coinbase, he added.
“Integrating Echo tools will help us enable more direct community engagement, matching projects with capital, fully on-chain,” Coinbase said, adding:
“While we will begin with crypto token sales through Sonar, we plan to expand support for tokenized securities and real-world assets over time, leveraging Echo’s infrastructure.”
Are ICOs back?
Coinbase’s acquisition of Echo marks a growing trend toward community fundraising, reminiscent of initial coin offerings (ICOs), which boomed in 2017.
According to an Oct. 16 report from Tiger Research, public sales have increasingly resurfaced in new forms, with launch platforms like Legion, Buidlpad, Sonar, and Kaito leading the trend.
“The ICO boom peaked in 2017 but rapidly contracted as it lost credibility due to fraud and opaque information,” Tiger Research said, adding that the market subsequently shifted to private sales.
“However, public sales are recently resurfacing in new forms,” he said, referring to public launch platforms like Sonar.
“The near-term hype around public launchpads may cool. However, public launchpads are expected to persist due to structural demand. They serve as a tool for projects to secure liquidity and early adopters,” the report concludes.
Related: Coinbase CEO Aims to Replace Banks with Crypto Super App
While it remains to be seen how the renewed trend of public token sales will play out, some high-profile figures linked to the Trump administration have called for a revival of ICOs earlier this year.
“We want to make ICOs great again,” Zak Folkman, co-founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial, said in February.
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