OpinionExchange
|6 min ReadCoinbase buys Echo: the 13-year rise of Cobie from $200 to millions
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
From a student with $200 to crypto’s survivor
On Oct. 21, Coinbase announced it would acquire the on-chain investment platform Echo for 25 million on an NFT to revive a podcast. Two big checks in two days, all pointing to one man: Jordan “Cobie” Fish.
Cobie is one of crypto’s enduring figures. He has 800,000 followers on X, cofounded Lido Finance, hosted the UpOnly podcast, and once blew the whistle on insider trading at Coinbase itself. When he heard the news, he wrote on X: “I didn’t expect Echo to be sold to Coinbase.” It probably wasn’t a humblebrag—Cobie has long joked that most of his ventures would fail. Two years ago, when he launched Echo, he said it had “a 95% chance of failure.”
That “failure” is now worth nearly 200 buying Bitcoin at $10 each. Those twenty coins changed his life.
Early experiments and a celebrity coin crash
In 2013 Bitcoin exploded from 1,000, and Cobie, then going by “CryptoCobain,” worked as a technical director at a UK startup. His first crypto project came by accident—a celebrity meme coin called Maxcoin.
TV host Max Keiser had joked he’d go nude on air if a coin named after him hit a 3.11 on Valentine’s Day, then collapsed 99.8% as Mt. Gox imploded. Cobie later said he never held any Maxcoin. He kept his day job and quietly watched Bitcoin fall back to $200 while most early adopters quit.
Building growth skills and a voice on X
In 2015 Cobie moved into Web2, joining education startup Enki, then fintech darling Monzo as a growth lead. The crypto market was flat, and for five years he built traditional tech skills while never leaving the online crypto scene. By 2020 he was tweeting daily about markets, DeFi, and scams—often with sharp humor and zero filter.
When asked about his portfolio, he said only 5% was in crypto. Ninety-five percent was cash and traditional assets. That discipline would later separate him from the many “all-in” influencers who blew up.
In summer 2020, DeFi erupted. Cobie left Monzo, returned full time to crypto, and placed a bet that would define his legacy.
Lido, UpOnly, and the rise of a crypto media brand
In October 2020 Cobie backed a small staking project called Lido, run by two Russian developers. Lido let users stake any amount of ETH and receive stETH in return. It became the largest staking service on Ethereum. That single deal reportedly made Cobie millions.
Then he launched a podcast. In April 2021, he and Ledger started UpOnly, inviting everyone from Vitalik Buterin to Michael Saylor, Do Kwon, SBF, and CZ. The show mixed depth with banter, and people loved it.
UpOnly sold NFTs as membership passes—those tokens later traded for over 10 ETH. Coinbase recently bought the entire NFT collection for $25 million. Ironically, UpOnly’s biggest sponsor had been FTX. When the exchange collapsed in November 2022, Cobie was livestreaming, analyzing the wallet flows in real time. That episode became part of the public record of FTX’s downfall.
Later that year, Cobie posted a tweet exposing suspicious trades ahead of Coinbase listings. The U.S. Justice Department charged a Coinbase manager, marking the first crypto insider-trading case in America. Cobie, once an outsider, had become crypto’s conscience.
Echo: a quiet build that ended in a $375 million deal
By early 2023, the market was still frozen, but Cobie wrote: “The best time to build is when nobody has hope.” Soon after, he launched Echo, a minimalist platform for token fundraising. It helped projects raise from private investors and offered a tool called Sonar for public sales—fully on-chain, non-custodial, transparent.
Echo’s first client was Ethena, introduced by Cobie himself. Ethena’s success made Echo credible overnight. By 2024, big names like MegaETH, Initia, and Plasma were using it. By the time of the Coinbase acquisition, Echo had processed more than $200 million across 300 deals.
For Coinbase, this was a strategic buy. It had already acquired token management firm LiquiFi in July. With Echo, Coinbase now controlled the chain from fundraising to trading. The Echo deal includes stock, making Cobie a Coinbase shareholder. Echo will stay semi-independent as Sonar integrates into Coinbase products.
The survivor of every cycle
Most of crypto’s 2012 pioneers are gone. Exchanges have fallen, empires have collapsed, narratives have come and gone. Cobie is still here. He’s been a developer, investor, host, and now a founder with a full exit. He has made and lost fortunes, called out scams, and still finds humor in the chaos.
He once said: “I was lucky early. I made good altcoin trades and thought I was a genius. But anyone who thinks they’re good at crypto at the start is wrong. If you make money in a bull market, it’s luck. The real skill is surviving after.”
After 13 long years, the man who once built a joke coin has sold a real company to Coinbase. A full circle, beautifully closed.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.