Coinbase strengthens its position in the on-chain finance market by acquiring the investment platform Echo for nearly $375 million.
This is reported by Finway
Building Infrastructure for On-Chain Fundraising
The well-known cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced the acquisition of Echo, one of the leading startups in decentralized investment solutions. Echo specializes in platforms for on-chain fundraising, allowing capital to be raised through both private rounds and public token sales using the Sonar tool.
The goal of this deal is to create a comprehensive infrastructure for on-chain financing. With the integration of Echo’s solutions, companies will be able to raise investments directly from the community, while users will gain access to previously closed early investment opportunities.
“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.
Echo’s Potential and Coinbase’s Strategy
Echo was founded by crypto enthusiast Cobie and quickly became one of the leaders among startups developing decentralized investment tools. Since the platform’s launch, over 300 projects have raised more than $200 million, and Sonar has become a popular solution for organizing public token sales, particularly during the token sale of the XPL project by Plasma.
At Coinbase, it is emphasized that Echo was created for inclusive, transparent, and efficient capital raising, marking a new phase in the democratization of early investments.
After acquiring the platform, Coinbase plans to integrate Echo’s tools into its ecosystem, ensuring a direct connection between startups and investors. The first phase will focus on token sales, but the functionality will later expand to tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWA).
Echo will complement Coinbase’s recent acquisition of the startup Liquifi, which specializes in token creation and cap table management. While Liquifi provides support during the project launch phase, Echo enhances the team’s capabilities during the capital raising stage, creating a unified vertical for token issuers and investors — from issuance to public listing and secondary trading.
“The combination of Liquifi and Echo allows Coinbase to support innovative projects at all stages — from launch to secondary markets. […] This simplifies access to capital for startups and opens new investment opportunities for the community,” the company’s official statement reads.
According to Coinbase, the integration of Echo will create a new model for on-chain financing. Founders will gain streamlined access to capital and convenient fundraising tools, investors will have the opportunity to participate in early rounds through the verified Echo platform or independent Sonar token sales, and the market as a whole will benefit from a transparent and efficient ecosystem that fosters innovation and global development.
Coinbase is confident that this step will help eliminate barriers between projects and capital, uniting the community around a new era of decentralized finance.
It is worth noting that in August 2025, Coinbase acquired the world’s largest cryptocurrency options trading platform, Deribit, for $2.9 billion.