Coinbase acquired the private sale platform Echo for $375 million, directly connecting to the exchange pipeline after the ICO.

Coinbase announced an acquisition of a private sale platform Echo, founded by renowned trader Cobie, for $375 million. As the public sale tool Sonar under the platform will be integrated into Coinbase, the outside world expects this merger to bring a seamless integration business from project “ICO to exchange listing.”

Coinbase acquisition of Cobie private sale platform Echo

Coinbase announced that the company made an acquisition of the on-chain fundraising platform Echo for $375 million in a combination of cash and stock. CEO Brian Armstrong also confirmed the news on X, emphasizing that the formation of on-chain capital is a crucial and unique part of the crypto ecosystem.

Cobie, the founder of Echo (Jordan Fish), stated: “When I started building Echo two years ago, I thought there was a 95% chance it would fail, and I never expected it would be sold to Coinbase, but that's just how it happened.”

Echo was established in April 2024 and facilitated 131 fundraising rounds within just eight months, raising over $51 million. The first fundraising project was the current third-largest stablecoin protocol Ethena ($ENA).

This acquisition continues Coinbase's acquisition rhythm, following Deribit, LiquiFi, and UpOnly; this is the company's eighth acquisition this year.

(Coinbase spent 25 million dollars to acquire UpOnly NFT, was Cobie forced to restart the legendary Podcast?)

Sonar will be integrated into Coinbase: creating a one-stop service from fundraising to trading.

Cobie stated that Echo will temporarily maintain independent product operations, but its ICO platform Sonar will be the first to be integrated into the Coinbase ecosystem: “They may use this to launch new ways for founders to more easily reach investors, and investors can also participate in public sales and investments directly on Coinbase.”

Coinbase has established a complete industrial chain that connects token issuance, private sale, public sale, CEX trading to DEX trading.

Coinbase pointed out that in the future, it will start with Sonar and expand into the tokenized securities and RWA fields, utilizing Echo's infrastructure to broaden on-chain financing models.

Is the era of “ICO 2.0” coming? The public sale market is heating up again.

It is not difficult to see that platforms such as Kaito, Buidlpad, Sonar, and Legion are leading the trend, with public sale ( public sale ) reviving in a new form. The entry of Coinbase is expected to further institutionalize this trend, creating a more compliant ICO channel.

DeFi researcher Ignas is also excited about this: “The acquisition of Echo shows the huge demand for the transition from private sale to public sale, and makes me more optimistic about the prospects of the Legion token and airdrop.”

Mike Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks, believes that this is the upward integration strategy of the exchange:

If the token issued by Echo becomes the next Hyperliquid, Coinbase will be able to launch it first, dominating trading pairs and liquidity.

Coinbase's ambition: to capture both on-chain and off-chain capital markets

From Deribit, LiquiFi, UpOnly to Echo, Coinbase is building a complete industry chain “from issuance to trading” with a series of acquisitions, which can be seen as a response to Binance's competition from Binance Alpha to the launch of the exchange.

Why is Base fiercely attacking Binance's listing fee controversy? Haotian: Concerned that a one-stop exit mechanism will destroy long-termism.

This not only makes Coinbase a bridge between on-chain fundraising and the secondary market, but also allows it to play a key role in the resurgence of ICOs.

This article reports that Coinbase acquired the private sale platform Echo for $375 million, paving the way for ICOs to go directly to the exchange pipeline. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.