Coinbase has acquired Echo, the onchain capital formation platform founded by crypto investor Cobie, for approximately $375 million.
The move underscores the exchange giant’s push to build compliant, blockchain-native fundraising infrastructure as onchain capital markets mature, according to Coinbase’s announcement.
Cobie reflected on the sale in a post, writing: “When I started building Echo two years ago, I knew it had a 95% chance of failing. To be honest, I couldn’t really imagine any other outcome, but I thought at least it may be a noble failure worth attempting.
“I certainly didn’t think Echo would be sold to Coinbase, but, here we are,” he added.
Echo will remain a standalone platform under its existing brand while Coinbase integrates Sonar, Echo’s public sale product, into its ecosystem. The companies plan to expand access for founders and investors to onchain capital formation directly through Coinbase’s interface.
On Monday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the company also purchased Cobie’s original UpOnly NFT — the emblem of Cobie’s long-running crypto podcast — for $25 million, calling it “a piece of crypto culture worth preserving” in a tweet. The NFT will reportedly be displayed in Coinbase’s onchain heritage collection, though financial details have not been independently verified.
Coinbase has made a handful of acquisitions so far this year. The exchange bought Deribit in a multi-billion dollar deal to expand into global derivatives trading, Blockworks reported. It also acquired the Opyn leadership team in July to strengthen its onchain markets stack, and acquired the founders of Sensible in September to develop consumer-friendly DeFi tools.
This is a developing story.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Michael McSweeney before publication.
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Source: https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-acquires-echo
