Coinbase Acquires Echo Crowdfunding Platform For $375M

Main US cryptocurrency alternate Coinbase has acquired Echo, a platform that permits communities to lift capital concentrating on early-stage tasks and startups.

Coinbase has struck a $375 million deal to accumulate Echo, a crowdfunding platform based by crypto dealer Jordan Fish, recognized locally as Cobie, the corporate announced on Tuesday.

The acquisition got here the day after Coinbase sent $25 million in USDC (USDC) to Cobie’s pockets to accumulate and burn a non-fungible token (NFT) and revive his UpOnly podcast.

“I definitely didn’t suppose Echo could be offered to Coinbase, however right here we’re: As we speak Coinbase purchased Echo for about $375 million,” Cobie wrote on X.

Ethena was the primary undertaking to lift with Echo 

The acquisition got here lower than two years after Cobie launched Echo in beta in April 2024 with a mission to allow communities to speculate collectively in personal funding rounds.

Within the eight months since launching, the platform has raised a minimum of $51 million in funding, with 131 offers closed, together with for Ethena, an artificial greenback protocol behind one of the fastest-growing yield-bearing stablecoins in the marketplace, USDe (USDE).

In accordance with Cobie, Ethena was the primary undertaking ever to fundraise utilizing Echo, highlighting the platform’s sharp concentrate on early-stage investing.

In Could, Echo introduced Sonar, a software program product permitting founders to self-host public token gross sales on their very own phrases and most well-liked blockchains resembling Hyperliquid, Base, Solana or Cardano.

Echo will stay standalone…“for now”

Following Coinbase’s acquisition, Echo will stay a “standalone platform beneath its present model for now,” Cobie mentioned in an X submit on Tuesday, including that the Sonar product shall be built-in into Coinbase.

The mixing will “seemingly” introduce new methods for founders to entry buyers, whereas buyers can have these new funding alternatives on Coinbase, he added.

“Integrating Echo’s instruments will assist us allow extra direct neighborhood participation, becoming a member of tasks with capital, fully onchain,” Coinbase mentioned, including:

“Whereas we’ll begin with crypto token gross sales through Sonar, we plan to broaden assist to tokenized securities and real-world belongings over time, leveraging Echo’s infrastructure.”

Are ICOs again?

The acquisition of Echo by Coinbase marks a rising pattern towards neighborhood fundraising, paying homage to initial coin offerings (ICOs), which boomed in 2017.

In accordance with an Oct. 16 report by Tiger Analysis, public gross sales have been more and more re-emerging in new types, with launchpads like Legion, Buidlpad, Sonar and Kaito main the pattern.

“The ICO increase peaked in 2017 however quickly contracted because it misplaced credibility on account of fraud and opaque info,” Tiger Analysis mentioned, including that the market subsequently shifted to non-public gross sales.

“Nonetheless, public gross sales are lately resurging in new types,” it mentioned, referring to public launchpads like Sonar.

“Brief-term hype round public launchpads might calm down. Nonetheless, public launchpads are anticipated to persist on account of structural demand. They function a software for tasks to safe early customers and liquidity,” the report concluded.

Associated: Coinbase CEO sets sights on replacing banks with crypto super app

Whereas it stays to be seen how the renewed pattern of public token gross sales will unfold, some high-profile figures linked to the Trump administration have called for an ICO revival earlier this 12 months.

“We need to make ICOs nice once more,” Zak Folkman, co-founder of the Trump household’s cryptocurrency enterprise World Liberty Monetary, mentioned in February.

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