Coinbase is evaluating IEO and STO platforms

The news was revealed by Kayvon Pirestani, head of Coinbase institutional sales in Asia. Speaking at the Invest: Asia conference, Pirestani said, “We think there’s a really interesting opportunity there for Coinbase. Coinbase is carefully exploring not only the IEO space but also STOs, but I can’t make any formal announcements right now.”

After the collapse of ICO market, the IEO model has filled the vacuum, with the innovative Binance exchange leading the way. OKEx, Huobi, and Bittrex, have all followed Binance’s lead and launched IEO platforms this year.

The IEO model is similar to an ICO, but with the involvement of an exchange. The exchange operates the sale and conducts due diligence on projects and investors in an attempt to avoid the outright scams that plagued the ICO boom of 2017.

With Binance about to launch a newly compliant U.S. exchange to serve its American customers, Coinbase appears to be ramping up its ability to compete. Coinbase was once seen as a very conservative, slow-moving exchange that only supported the trading of four assets. However, it has begun a process of adding a number of new assets in response to user demand, and if Coinbase does follow suit with the addition of an IEO and STO platform, it may have an advantage due to its existing strong relationships with U.S. regulators.