Coinbase Ventures Debuts Base Ecosystem Group on Echo Platform

Base has become Ethereum’s top layer two (L2) across several metrics and Base projects will now have access to onchain startup capital on Echo.

Echo Hosts Coinbase Ventures’ New Base Ecosystem Group to Expand Crypto Development

Projects building on Ethereum’s largest L2 network Base will now have access to early startup capital via the Echo platform thanks to the newly created Base Ecosystem Group announced by Coinbase Ventures on Thursday.

Crypto thought leader Jordan Fish, more commonly known as, “Cobie,” launched Echo in March 2024 with the goal of democratizing early stage onchain investing. Token launches are notorious for giving venture capitalist (VCs) exclusive early access, allowing said VCs to subsequently make obscene profits on the backs of unsuspecting retail investors.

(Jordan “Cobie” Fish / monzo.com)

Meltem Demirors, general partner at Crucible Capital, dubbed this phenomenon, “The Sh*tcoin Waterfall” after witnessing the 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) frenzy. “All of the ‘smart money’ or privileged insiders get access to these tokens at massive discounts,” Demirors explained during an episode of the Unchained Podcast in 2018. “And then there’s this massive waterfall, where they just dump further and further downstream and make lots of money while retail loses out,” she added.

(Crypto VC Meltem Demirors coined the term “Shitcoin Waterfall” after witnessing the 2017 ICO craze / Meltem Demirors on Medium)

And now with a more transparent onchain fundraising platform like Echo, Coinbase Ventures’ debut of the Base Ecosystem Group hopes to allow community members and actual users to invest and support their favorite crypto startups.

“Like us, Echo believes in democratizing access to investing so more people can back groundbreaking startups,” Coinbase Ventures posted on X. “Access should be broader, capital should be more dynamic, investing should be for more than just a small club of insiders.”

It should be noted that investing in Echo is still only available to accredited and qualified investors. But even then, that is a much larger cohort than the small exclusive pool of crypto VCs.