Coinbase has acquired Echo, a leading on-chain capital-raising platform, for about $375 million. The deal was announced Tuesday, marking a bold step by the U.S. crypto exchange to make fundraising simpler and more open.
Founded by crypto trader Jordan Fish, known as Cobie, Echo allows communities to invest together in early-stage projects. The company launched in April 2024 and quickly gained attention for its easy-to-use fundraising tools.
According to a press release, the company said it shares Echo’s goal of “democratizing early-stage investing,” noting that the deal will help build fair and transparent capital markets. Echo lets projects raise funds directly from their communities through private sales or public token sales using its product, Sonar.
In fact, Coinbase stated that integrating Echo will “enable more direct community participation” and connect projects with investors entirely on-chain. Cobie said in a post on X, “I certainly didn’t think Echo would be sold to Coinbase, but here we are.”
Meanwhile, Echo will continue to operate under its own brand “for now,” though Coinbase plans to bring Sonar’s features onto its platform soon. The move came just a day after Coinbase sent Cobie $25 million in USDC to buy and burn a special NFT.
So far, Echo has helped projects raise more than $200 million across about 300 deals. Its first major project was Ethena, the creator of the USDe stablecoin, which used Echo to complete its funding round.
Looking ahead, Coinbase said it plans to expand Echo’s tools to include tokenized securities and real-world assets. The deal also follows Coinbase’s earlier purchase of Liquifi, a company that helps with token creation and management.
Notably, Tiger Research shows that public token sales like Echo’s are making a comeback, echoing the 2017 ICO boom but with stronger structure and transparency.
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