Coinbase Announced Platform for ICOs — WSJ

• Coinbase has announced the launch of a service for initial token offerings, but with new rules and investor protection.
• Monad will be the first project whose tokens can be bought on the new platform before listing.
• The public token sale will take place once a month.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced the launch of a new platform that will allow individual investors to buy digital tokens before they are listed on the exchange. This is reported in The Wall Street Journal.

The first project to place its token on the new service will be the blockchain startup Monad, with the sale scheduled for next week.

According to official information, Coinbase plans to hold approximately one token sale per month. Participants will be able to submit purchase requests within one week, after which a special algorithm will distribute tokens among investors, ensuring “broad and fair allocation,” the company said.

Purchases will be made in the USDC stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Group. To participate, investors must be fully registered Coinbase users and meet regulatory compliance requirements.

The company stressed that projects that will place their tokens through the platform will be evaluated based on a number of criteria, including the level of user interest, founders’ reputation, tokenization, and asset unlocking schedule.

The launch of the platform will be the first opportunity for US retail investors to participate in public token sales since 2018, when the market experienced a collapse and increased regulatory pressure after the boom in initial token offerings (ICOs).

The platform will be available to the majority of users in the world at the start, and Coinbase plans to expand it in the future.

According to Scott Shapiro, Head of Trading at Coinbase, the new platform should make the process of investing in tokens safer and more professional:

According to him, the system will contain investor protection mechanisms that will prevent “get rich quick” and the sale of tokens immediately after the offering. Those who sell tokens quickly will receive smaller allocations in subsequent sales, and the founders and their affiliates will be prohibited from selling tokens for six months after the public offering.

We would like to remind you that you can find out about the most relevant token sales in a separate section on our website. In addition, the Incrypted team maintains a specialized Telegram channel where key events in this segment are promptly published.