Major United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has acquired Echo, a platform that allows communities to raise funds for early-stage projects and startups.
Coinbase announced on Tuesday that it had acquired Echo, the crowdfunding platform founded by crypto trader Jordan Fish (known in the community as Cobie), for $375 million.
The acquisition came a day after Coinbase transferred $25 million in USDC to Cobie’s wallet, which he used to purchase and burn a non-fungible token (NFT) to relaunch his podcast, UpOnly.
"I certainly didn't expect Echo to be acquired by Coinbase, but here it is: Coinbase acquired Echo today for approximately $375 million," Cobie wrote on X.
Ethena is the first project to be funded through Echo
The acquisition comes less than two years after Cobie launched Echo in beta in April 2024. Echo's mission is to enable the community to collectively participate in private funding rounds and invest in early-stage projects.
In the eight months since the platform launched, Echo has raised at least $51 million in funding and completed 131 transactions, including Ethena, a synthetic dollar protocol that supports USDe (USDE), one of the fastest-growing yield-generating stablecoins on the market.
According to Cobie, Ethena is the first project to raise funds through Echo, which also highlights the platform's focus on early-stage investment.
In May, Echo launched Sonar — a software product that allows project founders to host their own public token sales on their own terms and preferred blockchains, such as Hyperliquid, Base, Solana, or Cardano.
Cobie posted on X on Tuesday that after Coinbase completes the acquisition, Echo will "for now" continue to operate as an independent platform and maintain its existing brand.
He added that Echo’s Sonar product will be integrated into the Coinbase ecosystem, an integration that “will likely” provide entrepreneurs with new funding channels and investors with access to new investment opportunities on Coinbase.
“Integrating Echo’s tools will help us achieve more direct community engagement and connect projects with capital completely on-chain,” Coinbase said, adding:
“We will initially be conducting crypto token sales through Sonar, but plan to gradually expand support to include tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWAs) in the future, leveraging Echo’s infrastructure.”
Are ICOs back?
Coinbase’s acquisition of Echo signals a growing trend centered on community fundraising, reminiscent of the initial coin offering (ICO) craze of 2017.
According to a report released Thursday by Tiger Research, public sales are making a comeback in new forms, with launchpad platforms such as Legion, Buildpad, Sonar and Kaito leading the trend.
“The ICO craze peaked in 2017 but quickly lost credibility and shrank due to fraud and lack of transparency,” Tiger Research said, adding that the market subsequently shifted to private rounds of financing.
“However, public sales have recently seen a resurgence in new forms,” the report notes, referring to public launchpad platforms like Sonar.
“The short-term excitement surrounding public launchpads may fade over time,” the report concluded. “However, these platforms are expected to persist in the long term due to structural demand. They provide projects with a tool to acquire early users and liquidity.”
While it remains to be seen how the resurgence of public token sales will pan out, earlier this year some prominent figures associated with the Trump administration called for a revival of ICOs.
Zak Folkman, co-founder of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial, said in February:
“We want to make ICOs great again.”
