Will Coinbase's 375 million USD deal revive the ICO craze?

After many years of dominating thanks to venture capital, Coinbase is re-launching the idea that crypto projects can raise funds directly from users.

The US-based exchange announced on October 21 that it has acquired Echo, a crowdfunding platform founded by veteran investor Cobie, in a deal worth $375 million aimed at rebuilding a fair, transparent, and fully blockchain-based capital market.

Coinbase said:

“Echo believes in democratizing early-stage investment, so that more people can support the next generation of breakthrough companies… Integrating Echo's tools will help us drive direct community engagement, connecting projects with fully on-chain funding.”

This deal puts Coinbase at the center of a trend that is reshaping token financing. Echo has processed over 200 million USD through 300 transactions, using Echo Private and Sonar products – a self-hosted public sale tool.

These tools help projects organize token sales in compliance with regulations without relying on centralized launchpads or ambiguous allocations from venture capital funds.

Echo will maintain its own brand, but Coinbase plans to integrate the infrastructure of this platform into a comprehensive pipeline, including the exchange and the Base layer-2 network. As a result, the entire process of launching, fundraising, and secondary trading will be directly integrated into the Coinbase platform.

Coinbase stated that this integration will expand from crypto tokens to tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWA) in the future.

From the ICO Boom to Managed Launchpads

Coinbase's acquisition of Echo recalls the ICO frenzy ( for initial public token sales, similar to IPOs in the stock market ) from 2017 to 2018, when startups raised around $20 billion globally before the market collapsed under regulatory pressure.

After that, the public token sale market was frozen for 5 years, leaving the playing field to private fundraising rounds.

The interest in searching for ICOs on Google | Source: Tiger ResearchHowever, with the increasingly clear legal framework globally – including the United States, MiCA in Europe, Singapore, and KYC-compliant launchpads – public fundraising is returning in a controlled manner.

According to Tiger Research, compliant launchpads generated hundreds of millions of USD in 2025, with projects like Plasma's XPL token using Echo's Sonar system to complete oversubscribed sales.

Coinbase's acquisition of Echo demonstrates the ambition to institutionalize this trend. By routing early-stage offerings through a regulated exchange, this public company can bring vetted projects to 110 million authenticated users, while also opening up legitimate opportunities for individual investors – which were previously reserved for VC funds.

Return to crowdfunding, but not the 2017 style

Is this a sign of the return of the ICO craze? Not necessarily.

Analysts from Tiger Research note that the current environment is different in structure: stricter legal compliance, lower profits, and narrower information asymmetry.

Launchpads like Buidlpad in South Korea show good short-term performance, but the average token profit is just under 5× – very modest compared to the 100× increase of 2017.

At the same time, Blockworks researcher Carlos commented:

“The current ICO market is balanced between the risk of poor selection (weak founder) and the maturity level of capital (high valuation).”

ICO Context | Source: Blockworks ResearchNevertheless, the demand for transparent on-chain fundraising remains very high. Echo's model of screening participants, using verifiable smart contracts, and the public cap table ( provides a legal compliance framework for retail investors.

Tiger Research stated:

“Public launchpads reopen early-stage investment opportunities that were previously closed. They provide a fair and transparent pathway for individual investors who were excluded from VC-focused market structures.”

If successful, Coinbase could connect two eras of crypto finance: from speculative crowdsale events that attracted public attention, to tightly regulated token markets under global oversight.

However, Tiger Research warns that challenges remain significant. Expanding participation while maintaining effective selective funding poses potential conflicts, making it difficult to balance inclusiveness and quality control.

They emphasized:

“Overly transparent criteria are easily exploited, while ambiguous criteria lead to a decline in trust.”

To achieve balance, it is necessary to continue improving both institutionally and technically as the industry matures.

Thach Sanh