Coinbase bets on ICO comeback with $375M Echo deal
Coinbase acquired the community fundraising platform Echo for $375 million, signaling a potential resurgence of ICO-like investment models.Summary
Major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has acquired Echo, a platform founded by Jordan Fish (Cobie) that enables communities to raise capital for early-stage projects, in a $375 million deal. Echo, launched in beta in April 2024, has already facilitated $51 million in funding across 131 deals, including for the synthetic dollar protocol Ethena. Following the acquisition, Echo will remain standalone for now, but its software product, Sonar—which allows founders to host public token sales—will be integrated into Coinbase. Coinbase stated this integration will help enable direct community participation and plans to expand support beyond crypto token sales to tokenized securities and real-world assets. The acquisition is seen as marking a growing trend toward community fundraising reminiscent of the 2017 Initial Coin Offering (ICO) boom, which is re-emerging in new forms via public launchpads, driven by structural demand for securing early users and liquidity.
(Source：Cointelegraph)