Coinbase (COIN) acquired Echo, a startup focused on on-chain capital formation, for approximately $375 million.
Founded by a longtime crypto figure known by his pseudonym Cobie, Echo has helped projects raise more than $200 million in around 300 deals since their launch.
The platform allows startups to raise money directly from their communities, either privately or through self-hosted public token sales using a product called Sonar.
In a statement announcing the acquisition, Coinbase said the deal would help it build a “full-stack” solution for crypto fundraising. For startups, this means easier access to capital and tools that align fundraising with their user base. For investors, this opens the door to startup opportunities that were often reserved for private networks.
“Echo will remain a standalone platform under its current brand for now, but we will integrate Sonar’s public sale product into Coinbase and likely introduce new ways for founders to access investors and for investors to access opportunities in Coinbase itself,” Cobie said on X.
Coinbase plans to expand Echo’s infrastructure beyond crypto, eventually supporting tokenized securities and real-world assets, the company said.
This acquisition complements Coinbase’s earlier purchase of token management platform LiquiFi. The stock market’s move also comes after it spent $25 million to relaunch Cobie’s UpOnly podcast.
