Echo Announces New Platform Sonar For Public Token Sales – Are ICO Days Back?

Public Token Sales:- There was a time in the industry when the majority of fundraisings used to happen via Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The leading companies of Web3 viz., Ethereum, Tezos raised million by the public token sales. Even though they continue to happen even today, the scale and frequency has declined signficantly.

Today, the majority of fundraising for Web3 projects happens through private rounds or by token launches or exchange listings.

In a bid to revive the old culture with renewed spirit, the investment platform Echo has launched a new platform – Sonar.  As the investment platform founded by crypto figure Cobie alias Jordan Fish, Echo has supported numerous early-stage startups.

Based on the feedback from many founders, its new platform removes technical barriers for founders to perform token sales.

Today, we are announcing Sonar – a new product by Echo that lets anyone host a public token sale. pic.twitter.com/2TmuisokIJ

— echo (@echodotxyz) May 27, 2025

Public Token Sales By Sonar – How exactly it Works

Echo as the Investment platform has been allowing investors to participate in private funding rounds for new startups or token projects.

But its new product Sonar will allow founders to host their own token sale publicly. With the sales being public, founders are also allowed to market their token sale on various social media platforms – Discord, Telegram etc.

According to the announcement, Sonar follows a time-weighted deposit system. Instead of a “first-come, first-served” or lottery model, participants will deposit stablecoins – USDT, USDC –  into a vault over a period.

The longer the deposit stays in the vault, the greater would be the share of the token allocation.

Further, moving away from its earlier group based structure, Echo is now allowing everyone to self-host the sale. The company informed that there can be various ways by which they can perform public sales for their tokens.

This includes auctions, points system, options drops, variable valuations and allocation sizes. Interestingly, the platform can allow 10,000 different sales at one time.

This will give investors an easy way to find the ongoing token sales similar to the ICO days but with regulatory compliance.

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Plasma Announces XPL Public Sale

In a first instance, Plasma, the stablecoin payments based blockchain has announced the first XPL public sale. Using Sonar, it will sell 10% of XPL which it values at $500 million FDV.

Interestingly, the company informed that this is the same valuation as it raised during its recent equity round with Founders Fund – a major VC firm backed by Peter Thiel.

The financial system of tomorrow. Owned by you.

Announcing the XPL public sale, using Sonar by @echodotxyz.

10% of XPL will be sold at a $500M FDV, the same valuation as our latest equity round with Founders Fund. pic.twitter.com/zB5r88vnic

— Plasma (@PlasmaFDN) May 27, 2025

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Reviving the ICO Days Amid Regulatory Challenges

Sonar aims to revive the accessibility of ICOs—but with modern safeguards. The platform is performing automatic compliance checks, supports capped sales, and gives founders full control over access permissions and vesting schedules. They can also decide the community restrictions around who can assess their token public sales.

Over the past few years, many crypto token launches have occurred behind closed doors. However, these allocation rounds have been tightly held by VCs and institutional players. By the time tokens hit public exchanges, average users often face inflated prices and limited upside.

While Sonar is undoubtedly a bold attempt to revive the democratic spirit of the ICO era, it’s launching into a very different regulatory and cultural climate.

In the U.S., the SEC continues to scrutinize token sales for potential violations of securities laws. Europe’s MiCA framework adds further complexity. Many founders now prefer private rounds or launch strategies that avoid any direct token fundraising altogether.

Still, industry veterans argue that the appetite for community-driven fundraising remains strong – especially as crypto gears up for another bull cycle. Last month only, Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial concluded its public token sale which ended up raising $550 million. According to the data, WLFI sale accounted for the 74% of all public token capital in Q1 2025.

Thus, the platforms like Sonar, if used responsibly, could mark a new chapter in token sales and the way they function.

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