Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has announced the acquisition of the investment platform Echo for nearly $375 million. This move is aimed at strengthening the exchange’s position in the on-chain finance sector and creating a comprehensive infrastructure for raising capital through blockchain.
This is reported by Business • Media
Echo: A New Level of Decentralized Investing
Founded by crypto enthusiast Cobie, Echo has become one of the key platforms for decentralized investing and fundraising. The platform allows project teams to raise funds through both private rounds and public token sales, organized independently via a specialized tool called Sonar. Since its launch, Echo has already helped projects raise over $200 million across more than 300 deals, and Sonar has become one of the most popular solutions for conducting token sales, particularly during the token sale of the XPL project by Plasma.
“We want to make capital markets more accessible, efficient, and transparent. […] Echo addresses this issue by allowing projects to raise funds directly from the community — through private sales or public token sales using Sonar,” stated Coinbase.
According to company representatives, integrating Echo into the Coinbase ecosystem will open a direct channel for interaction between startups and investors. In the initial stages, the company plans to focus on supporting token sales and later expand its services to include working with tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWA), leveraging Echo’s capabilities.
Development Strategy: From Launch to Secondary Market
Echo will become an important part of the Coinbase ecosystem, complementing the recently acquired company Liquifi, which specializes in token creation and cap table management for startups. While Liquifi assists teams in the early stages, Echo enhances capabilities during the capital raising process. Thus, Coinbase is building a vertical for token issuers and investors — from creating digital assets to their public offering and subsequent trading in the secondary market.
In an official statement, the company emphasizes that the combination of Liquifi and Echo enables support for innovative projects at all stages of development, simplifying access to capital for startups and opening new investment opportunities for the community.
The integration of Echo will create a new model of on-chain financing that will provide:
- startup founders — quick and easy access to capital and flexible fundraising tools;
- investors — exclusive early-stage investment opportunities through the trusted Echo platform or their own Sonar token sales;
- the market — a transparent, global, and efficient ecosystem that fosters innovation and overall industry growth.
Coinbase is confident that acquiring Echo will help eliminate barriers between startups and capital, fostering community engagement around a new era of decentralized finance. This move is part of the company’s long-term strategy to develop on-chain capital markets and expand investment opportunities for a wide range of users.
It is worth noting that in August 2025, Coinbase also acquired the leading platform for trading crypto options, Deribit, for $2.9 billion, highlighting the company’s ambitions in developing innovative financial solutions.