According to Gizmodo, Coinbase is launching a new token sales platform that will allow U.S. retail investors to participate in initial coin offerings for the first time since the 2017-2018 ICO hysteria ended in disaster. The move comes just weeks after Coinbase acquired the investment platform Echo for $375 million. During that original ICO bubble, celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather faced SEC charges for promoting dubious tokens. Coinbase claims it will implement safeguards including requiring projects to meet certain standards and using algorithms to prevent quick token dumping. The platform will also block token issuers from selling their allocations for at least six months and require disclosure of tokenomics and project credibility details.
Is this just history repeating?
Look, I’ve been around crypto long enough to remember the absolute madness of 2017. Basically, every project with a whitepaper and some buzzwords could raise millions overnight. And most of them turned out to be complete garbage or outright scams. The SEC came down hard for good reason – people lost real money. Now Coinbase wants to bring this back? Here’s the thing: their safeguards sound reasonable on paper, but we’ve heard “this time it’s different” before.
Coinbase’s credibility problem
So Coinbase wants to position itself as a neutral gatekeeper for token sales? That’s a tough sell when you remember their Coinbase Earn program, where they literally took money from projects to distribute tokens to users who’d create promotional content. They’re trying to have it both ways – acting as both promoter and regulator. And let’s be real: when a centralized exchange that’s deeply embedded in traditional finance (they’re using USDC stablecoin, for crying out loud) starts acting like the arbiter of what’s legitimate in crypto, we’ve come a long way from Satoshi’s vision of trustless systems.
The regulatory wildcard
Remember when the SEC under Gary Gensler basically considered everything but bitcoin a security? They actually sued Coinbase over this stuff, though that case got dropped. Now with the Trump administration being more crypto-friendly, Coinbase sees an opening. But Congress’s Clarity Act, which was supposed to bring regulatory certainty, has seen its chances of passing this year drop from 87% to 21% since July. So we’re still in this weird limbo where nobody really knows what the rules are long-term.
The centralization creep continues
What’s really striking about this move is how much it resembles traditional finance. We’ve got a big centralized institution acting as gatekeeper, using dollar-pegged stablecoins, with projects that look more like traditional fintech than anything truly decentralized. It’s basically becoming Wall Street with blockchain branding. And honestly, that might be the inevitable direction for mass adoption – but it’s a far cry from the peer-to-peer electronic cash system Bitcoin was supposed to be.
