Can Retail Investors Participate in Coinbase Ventures' Projects Now? Learn How to Seize the Opportunity of the 'Coinbase Hundredfold Public Sale' through Echo

By: blockbeats|2025/03/14 15:30:03
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Coinbase announced today that it is partnering with Echo to introduce an investment model for the community to participate in, providing further momentum for projects within the Base ecosystem. It also revealed the 40 Base projects that have been invested in and supported by Coinbase Ventures over the past year and a half. This article will briefly introduce Echo and compile Alpha opportunities from more than 40 projects.

Can Retail Investors Participate in Coinbase Ventures' Projects Now? Learn How to Seize the Opportunity of the 'Coinbase Hundredfold Public Sale' through Echo

What is Echo

Echo was founded by crypto KOL Cobie "@echodotxyz" in March 2024. Cobie was previously the Growth Lead at Lido and has hosted the popular Web3 podcast UpOnly. The core of Echo lies in the "Lead Investor Recommendation Mechanism," where users can act as lead investors to create investment communities, share projects with members, and receive a share of the profits.

Since its launch, over 30 crypto projects have raised funds through Echo, including well-known projects such as Ethena, Morph, Usual, Hyperlane, Dawn, Monad, Initia, MegaETH, and others. In one year, a total of $100 million has been raised, with MegaETH raising $10 million in two rounds through the Echo platform in December 2024. The first round raised $4.2 million in 56 seconds, and the second round raised $5.8 million in 75 seconds.

The model is similar to the "Syndicate" of crypto investors, which tends to select high-potential projects recognized by a small circle. Figures like The Block's CEO Larry Cermak and Aave founder Marc Zeller have created their own Echo communities. To join, users must first answer questions, undergo identity KYC verification, and in some cases, meet specific criteria to access certain investment opportunities. Currently, 58 community leaders have created communities on Echo.

This community-driven model manages investments through smart contracts, ensuring that lead investors do not have access to user funds and allowing users to decide when to sell tokens. If a lead investor's investment is successful, they receive a percentage of the co-investor's profit, incentivizing the sharing of high-quality projects. Despite its elite orientation, which results in a relatively niche user base, this screening mechanism ensures project quality and attracts trustworthy investors.

This type of investment model is destined to have a relatively small investor base, but this situation may change after the collaboration with Coinbase. Last month, founder Jordan Fish "Cobie" revealed plans to develop an ICO platform and stated, "Currently, there isn't a good way to conduct initial sales, your best bet may be CoinList, but for several reasons, it has significant limitations."

Meanwhile, Coinbase's VP of Business Development, Shan Aggarwal, and Base's founder, Jesse Pollak, stated in a joint announcement, "On-chain investing allows eligible investors to participate in ways previously not possible, while enabling founders to access a broader, more vibrant capital base. We are excited to expand Base's builder capital channels, allowing more people to participate in the next wave of innovation." Their thoughts align, making Coinbase Ventures an Echo leader at this juncture, foreseeing Echo's product target audience becoming more 'open' than before and expecting more Base-Build projects to emerge.

Some industry experts suggest that the more permissive regulatory environment in the U.S. could lead to a resurgence in public sales. Another hot ICO platform of the moment, Legion, co-founded by Matt O'Connor, stated, "Once ICOs regain momentum, they may shift the focus away from the memecoin craze." In the current period, there are fewer and fewer real products being built, and more wealth is accumulating behind the scenes. If the collaboration between Echo and Base is successful, it will unlock a broader pool of funds for builders within the industry and allow a wider range of eligible investors to participate in venture capital transactions previously inaccessible.

Base Alpha

We cannot predict the future outstanding projects that Base may share on Echo, but among the mentioned 40+ investment projects, apart from the already quite well-known projects like Aerodrome, Morpho, Mirror, there are many Alphas worth exploring. The following is a compilation of some projects that retail investors can participate in and a brief introduction.

AI and Technology Category

Sapien

Sapien is a decentralized data factory that allows enterprises, AI models, and agents to access datasets from experts in various fields, such as "question-answer annotation, data collection, model fine-tuning, testing and evaluation, text classification, sentiment analysis, semantic segmentation, image classification." According to the official website, over 110,000 AI trainers from more than 90 countries have participated in the point program. Sapien plans to launch an open, permissionless protocol on Base in the future, combining economic incentives, reputation systems, and game mechanics to drive the scale of AI training.

This project is led by Base co-founder Rowan Stone and Polymath founder Trevor Koverko, with deep collaboration with Coinbase. As a decentralized solution for AI data labeling, it is reportedly already serving excellent companies such as Baidu, Midjourney, Alibaba, and TAL Education Group. However, the specific service mode and depth are unknown. Nevertheless, in the current good state of the project, users can still participate in the 0-cost staking program to potentially receive future tokens.

HeyElsa

Elsa is an AI Agent designed for blockchain-related tasks. The author has been following this project for a long time. In a situation where ChatBots are rushing to issue coins under a DeFAI concept, the project's insistence on building a product without issuing coins is rare. Elsa is now able to consistently meet nearly all on-chain token interaction needs across multiple chains, including staking and lending, sending and receiving cryptocurrencies, exchanging and bridging cryptocurrencies, viewing cryptocurrency prices, viewing popular tokens, viewing portfolio settings, getting the latest news, etc. Currently, users can earn points by completing various tasks, which may be related to future token plans.

Infrastructure

Conduit

Conduit is a cryptographic infrastructure platform focused on helping teams quickly deploy production-grade OP Chains to meet the needs of DeFi protocols, gaming companies, and NFT platforms. The project recently completed a $37 million Series A funding round led by Paradigm and Haun Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures. The funds will be used to develop custom blockchain products. In the current implementation of L3 App Chain by Base, Conduit simplifies the blockchain development process under Base's Layer 2 scaling requirements, with strong market demand. Although no tokens have been issued yet, the recent funding round demonstrates market confidence, and tokens may be introduced in the future to incentivize ecosystem participants.

Supermigrate

Supermigrate is a blockchain project migration service that helps projects migrate between different networks, now supporting Base, Op, Mode, Ink, and other chains. In a multi-chain ecosystem and with the development of L2, the demand for EVM-based migration services may increase, potentially increasing the need for such foundational tools.

Social and Prediction Market Category

Limitless

Limitless is a decentralized social prediction protocol similar to Polymarket, allowing creators to set up prediction markets and engage with the community. Users can trade on the outcomes of real-world events and earn fees, similar to binary options or 0DTE options, providing a low-cost trading experience. The total market volume on the platform has now reached $170 million. Users may potentially earn future tokens through active participation in prediction markets, providing liquidity, or referring new users.

Neynar

Neynar provides developer tools to help build decentralized social networks, primarily serving social protocols like Farcaster. The project recently completed a $11 million Series A funding round with participation from Coinbase Ventures. As infrastructure for social protocols, while currently operating on a fiat and crypto subscription business model, as a tool deeply involved in the Farcaster product, the possibility of issuing tokens in the future to incentivize its ecosystem cannot be ruled out.

The above projects are not investment advice and are for informational purposes only. In the current bear market, please take care to protect your assets. The rapid development of the Base chain will undoubtedly leverage its ecosystem's strong Dev acceleration in product releases. Base is also working to increase community engagement and investment opportunities in valuable products in various ways to "unlock a broader funding pool," which will bring more opportunities on Base. BlockBeats will continue to track valuable information.

Based.

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China's Central Bank and Eight Other Departments' Latest Regulatory Focus: Key Attention to RWA Tokenized Asset Risk


Foreword: Today, the People's Bank of China's website published the "Notice of the People's Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration for Market Regulation, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Further Preventing and Dealing with Risks Related to Virtual Currency and Others (Yinfa [2026] No. 42)", the latest regulatory requirements from the eight departments including the central bank, which are basically consistent with the regulatory requirements of recent years. The main focus of the regulation is on speculative activities such as virtual currency trading, exchanges, ICOs, overseas platform services, and this time, regulatory oversight of RWA has been added, explicitly prohibiting RWA tokenization, stablecoins (especially those pegged to the RMB). The following is the full text:


To the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:


  Recently, there have been speculative activities related to virtual currency and Real-World Assets (RWA) tokenization, disrupting the economic and financial order and jeopardizing the property security of the people. In order to further prevent and address the risks related to virtual currency and Real-World Assets tokenization, effectively safeguard national security and social stability, in accordance with the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the People's Bank of China," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Commercial Banks," "Securities Law of the People's Republic of China," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Securities Investment Funds," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Futures and Derivatives," "Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China," "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Renminbi," "Regulations on Prevention and Disposal of Illegal Fundraising," "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Foreign Exchange Administration," "Telecommunications Regulations of the People's Republic of China," and other provisions, after reaching consensus with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and with the approval of the State Council, the relevant matters are notified as follows:


  I. Clarify the essential attributes of virtual currency, Real-World Assets tokenization, and related business activities


  (I) Virtual currency does not possess the legal status equivalent to fiat currency. Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, etc., have the main characteristics of being issued by non-monetary authorities, using encryption technology and distributed ledger or similar technology, existing in digital form, etc. They do not have legal tender status, should not and cannot be circulated and used as currency in the market.


  The business activities related to virtual currency are classified as illegal financial activities. The exchange of fiat currency and virtual currency within the territory, exchange of virtual currencies, acting as a central counterparty in buying and selling virtual currencies, providing information intermediary and pricing services for virtual currency transactions, token issuance financing, and trading of virtual currency-related financial products, etc., fall under illegal financial activities, such as suspected illegal issuance of token vouchers, unauthorized public issuance of securities, illegal operation of securities and futures business, illegal fundraising, etc., are strictly prohibited across the board and resolutely banned in accordance with the law. Overseas entities and individuals are not allowed to provide virtual currency-related services to domestic entities in any form.


  A stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency indirectly fulfills some functions of the fiat currency in circulation. Without the consent of relevant authorities in accordance with the law and regulations, any domestic or foreign entity or individual is not allowed to issue a RMB-pegged stablecoin overseas.


(II)Tokenization of Real-World Assets refers to the use of encryption technology and distributed ledger or similar technologies to transform ownership rights, income rights, etc., of assets into tokens (tokens) or other interests or bond certificates with token (token) characteristics, and carry out issuance and trading activities.


  Engaging in the tokenization of real-world assets domestically, as well as providing related intermediary, information technology services, etc., which are suspected of illegal issuance of token vouchers, unauthorized public offering of securities, illegal operation of securities and futures business, illegal fundraising, and other illegal financial activities, shall be prohibited; except for relevant business activities carried out with the approval of the competent authorities in accordance with the law and regulations and relying on specific financial infrastructures. Overseas entities and individuals are not allowed to illegally provide services related to the tokenization of real-world assets to domestic entities in any form.


  II. Sound Work Mechanism


  (III) Inter-agency Coordination. The People's Bank of China, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other departments, will improve the work mechanism, strengthen coordination with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, coordinate efforts, and overall guide regions to carry out risk prevention and disposal of virtual currency-related illegal financial activities.


  The China Securities Regulatory Commission, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other departments, will improve the work mechanism, strengthen coordination with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, coordinate efforts, and overall guide regions to carry out risk prevention and disposal of illegal financial activities related to the tokenization of real-world assets.


  (IV) Strengthening Local Implementation. The people's governments at the provincial level are overall responsible for the prevention and disposal of risks related to virtual currencies and the tokenization of real-world assets in their respective administrative regions. The specific leading department is the local financial regulatory department, with participation from branches and dispatched institutions of the State Council's financial regulatory department, telecommunications regulators, public security, market supervision, and other departments, in coordination with cyberspace departments, courts, and procuratorates, to improve the normalization of the work mechanism, effectively connect with the relevant work mechanisms of central departments, form a cooperative and coordinated working pattern between central and local governments, effectively prevent and properly handle risks related to virtual currencies and the tokenization of real-world assets, and maintain economic and financial order and social stability.


  III. Strengthened Risk Monitoring, Prevention, and Disposal


  (5) Enhanced Risk Monitoring. The People's Bank of China, China Securities Regulatory Commission, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Cyberspace Administration of China, and other departments continue to improve monitoring techniques and system support, enhance cross-departmental data analysis and sharing, establish sound information sharing and cross-validation mechanisms, promptly grasp the risk situation of activities related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization. Local governments at all levels give full play to the role of local monitoring and early warning mechanisms. Local financial regulatory authorities, together with branches and agencies of the State Council's financial regulatory authorities, as well as departments of cyberspace and public security, ensure effective connection between online monitoring, offline investigation, and fund tracking, efficiently and accurately identify activities related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization, promptly share risk information, improve early warning information dissemination, verification, and rapid response mechanisms.


  (6) Strengthened Oversight of Financial Institutions, Intermediaries, and Technology Service Providers. Financial institutions (including non-bank payment institutions) are prohibited from providing account opening, fund transfer, and clearing services for virtual currency-related business activities, issuing and selling financial products related to virtual currency, including virtual currency and related financial products in the scope of collateral, conducting insurance business related to virtual currency, or including virtual currency in the scope of insurance liability. Financial institutions (including non-bank payment institutions) are prohibited from providing custody, clearing, and settlement services for unauthorized real-world asset tokenization-related business and related financial products. Relevant intermediary institutions and information technology service providers are prohibited from providing intermediary, technical, or other services for unauthorized real-world asset tokenization-related businesses and related financial products.


  (7) Enhanced Management of Internet Information Content and Access. Internet enterprises are prohibited from providing online business venues, commercial displays, marketing, advertising, or paid traffic diversion services for virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization-related business activities. Upon discovering clues of illegal activities, they should promptly report to relevant departments and provide technical support and assistance for related investigations and inquiries. Based on the clues transferred by the financial regulatory authorities, the cyberspace administration, telecommunications authorities, and public security departments should promptly close and deal with websites, mobile applications (including mini-programs), and public accounts engaged in virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization-related business activities in accordance with the law.


  (8) Strengthened Entity Registration and Advertisement Management. Market supervision departments strengthen entity registration and management, and enterprise and individual business registrations must not contain terms such as "virtual currency," "virtual asset," "cryptocurrency," "crypto asset," "stablecoin," "real-world asset tokenization," or "RWA" in their names or business scopes. Market supervision departments, together with financial regulatory authorities, legally enhance the supervision of advertisements related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization, promptly investigating and handling relevant illegal advertisements.


  (IX) Continued Rectification of Virtual Currency Mining Activities. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, strictly controls virtual currency mining activities, continuously promotes the rectification of virtual currency mining activities. The people's governments of various provinces take overall responsibility for the rectification of "mining" within their respective administrative regions. In accordance with the requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments in the "Notice on the Rectification of Virtual Currency Mining Activities" (NDRC Energy-saving Building [2021] No. 1283) and the provisions of the "Guidance Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2024 Edition)," a comprehensive review, investigation, and closure of existing virtual currency mining projects are conducted, new mining projects are strictly prohibited, and mining machine production enterprises are strictly prohibited from providing mining machine sales and other services within the country.


  (X) Severe Crackdown on Related Illegal Financial Activities. Upon discovering clues to illegal financial activities related to virtual currency and the tokenization of real-world assets, local financial regulatory authorities, branches of the State Council's financial regulatory authorities, and other relevant departments promptly investigate, determine, and properly handle the issues in accordance with the law, and seriously hold the relevant entities and individuals legally responsible. Those suspected of crimes are transferred to the judicial authorities for processing according to the law.


 (XI) Severe Crackdown on Related Illegal and Criminal Activities. The Ministry of Public Security, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, as well as judicial and procuratorial organs, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, rigorously crack down on illegal and criminal activities related to virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, such as fraud, money laundering, illegal business operations, pyramid schemes, illegal fundraising, and other illegal and criminal activities carried out under the guise of virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, etc.


  (XII) Strengthen Industry Self-discipline. Relevant industry associations should enhance membership management and policy advocacy, based on their own responsibilities, advocate and urge member units to resist illegal financial activities related to virtual currency and the tokenization of real-world assets. Member units that violate regulatory policies and industry self-discipline rules are to be disciplined in accordance with relevant self-regulatory management regulations. By leveraging various industry infrastructure, conduct risk monitoring related to virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, and promptly transfer issue clues to relevant departments.


  IV. Strict Supervision of Domestic Entities Engaging in Overseas Business Activities


(XIII) Without the approval of relevant departments in accordance with the law and regulations, domestic entities and foreign entities controlled by them may not issue virtual currency overseas.


  (XIV) Domestic entities engaging directly or indirectly in overseas external debt-based tokenization of real-world assets, or conducting asset securitization activities abroad based on domestic ownership rights, income rights, etc. (hereinafter referred to as domestic equity), should be strictly regulated in accordance with the principles of "same business, same risk, same rules." The National Development and Reform Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other relevant departments regulate it according to their respective responsibilities. For other forms of overseas real-world asset tokenization activities based on domestic equity by domestic entities, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, together with relevant departments, supervise according to their division of responsibilities. Without the consent and filing of relevant departments, no unit or individual may engage in the above-mentioned business.


  (15) Overseas subsidiaries and branches of domestic financial institutions providing Real World Asset Tokenization-related services overseas shall do so legally and prudently. They shall have professional personnel and systems in place to effectively mitigate business risks, strictly implement customer onboarding, suitability management, anti-money laundering requirements, and incorporate them into the domestic financial institutions' compliance and risk management system. Intermediaries and information technology service providers offering Real World Asset Tokenization services abroad based on domestic equity or conducting Real World Asset Tokenization business in the form of overseas debt for domestic entities directly or indirectly venturing abroad must strictly comply with relevant laws and regulations. They should establish and improve relevant compliance and internal control systems in accordance with relevant normative requirements, strengthen business and risk control, and report the business developments to the relevant regulatory authorities for approval or filing.


  V. Strengthen Organizational Implementation


  (16) Strengthen organizational leadership and overall coordination. All departments and regions should attach great importance to the prevention of risks related to virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization, strengthen organizational leadership, clarify work responsibilities, form a long-term effective working mechanism with centralized coordination, local implementation, and shared responsibilities, maintain high pressure, dynamically monitor risks, effectively prevent and mitigate risks in an orderly and efficient manner, legally protect the property security of the people, and make every effort to maintain economic and financial order and social stability.


  (17) Widely carry out publicity and education. All departments, regions, and industry associations should make full use of various media and other communication channels to disseminate information through legal and policy interpretation, analysis of typical cases, and education on investment risks, etc. They should promote the illegality and harm of virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization-related businesses and their manifestations, fully alert to potential risks and hidden dangers, and enhance public awareness and identification capabilities for risk prevention.


  VI. Legal Responsibility


  (18) Engaging in illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization in violation of this notice, as well as providing services for virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization-related businesses, shall be punished in accordance with relevant regulations. If it constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued according to the law. For domestic entities and individuals who knowingly or should have known that overseas entities illegally provided virtual currency or Real World Asset Tokenization-related services to domestic entities and still assisted them, relevant responsibilities shall be pursued according to the law. If it constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued according to the law.


  (19) If any unit or individual invests in virtual currencies, Real World Asset Tokens, and related financial products against public order and good customs, the relevant civil legal actions shall be invalid, and any resulting losses shall be borne by them. If there are suspicions of disrupting financial order and jeopardizing financial security, the relevant departments shall deal with them according to the law.


  This notice shall enter into force upon the date of its issuance. The People's Bank of China and ten other departments' "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation" (Yinfa [2021] No. 237) is hereby repealed.


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