Coinbase (COIN) has acquired Echo, a startup focapplyd on onchain capital formation, for approximately $375 million.
Founded by a longtime crypto figure known by its Cobie pseudonym, Echo has assisted projects raise over $200 million across roughly 300 deals since launch.
The platform allows startups to raise funds directly from their communities, either privately or through self-hosted public token sales utilizing a product called Sonar.
In a statement announcing the acquisition, Coinbase stated the deal would assist it build a “full-stack” solution for crypto fundraising. For startups, that means clearer access to capital and tools that align fundraising with their applyr base. For investors, it opens the door to early-stage opportunities that were often gated behind 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 into coinbase itself,” Cobie stated on X.
Coinbase plans to expand Echo’s infrastructure beyond crypto, eventually supporting tokenized securities and real-world assets, the company stated.
The acquisition complements Coinbase’s earlier purchase of token management platform LiquiFi. As part of the exmodify’s shift it spent $25 million on reviving Cobie’s UpOnly podcast.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the price paid for the UpOnly podcast was part of the $375 million.
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