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Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan believes that the next crypto bull run will be driven not by Bitcoin or DeFi, but by a revival of Initial Coin Offerings, this time, under strict compliance and regulation.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, Hougan said Coinbase’s new token sale platform, launched on November 10, marks the beginning of a new era for regulated ICOs. A shift he predicts will define the market by 2026.
“Crypto has reinvented gold through Bitcoin, dollars through stablecoins, and trading through tokenization,: he wrote. “This week, we added a fourth category: capital formation.”
Hougan argued that Coinbase’s move could solve a long-standing problem in traditional finance: limited access for retail investors to early-stage opportunities.
The current system, he said, favors institutions and venture capital firms, leaving retail investors with fewer chances to participate until late in a company’s lifecycle.
Coinbase Reopens Token Sales After Six Years, Starting With Monad token
Coinbase’s decision to reopen token sales for U.S. investors, the first since 2018, shows a carefully structured comeback of the ICO model.
The exchange will debut one new, fully vetted crypto project each month, starting with Monad, a layer-1 blockchain whose sale runs from November 17 to 22, offering 7.5% of its total token supply.
Under Coinbase’s new framework, investors will have a week to submit bids in USD Coin (USDC). An algorithm will then allocate tokens, prioritizing smaller bids to promote wider distribution.
Investors attempting to sell within 30 days of launch will receive smaller allocations in future sales, a rule meant to discourage speculative flipping.
Issuers must undergo strict vetting on team credentials, token economics, and vesting schedules. Tokens will be locked for at least six months, and all secondary sales will require public disclosure.
Coinbase said there will be no participation fees for users, while issuers will pay a percentage fee on the amount raised.
The exchange said the initiative seeks to “set a new standard” for transparency, correcting the excesses of the 2017-2018 ICO boom, a period Hougan called “a complete disaster.”
During that earlier wave, projects raised billions in unregulated sales, many of which turned out to be scams or failed ventures.
The fallout prompted a regulatory crackdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which effectively ended the ICO era and pushed the market into a prolonged downturn.
Bitwise CIO Credits SEC’s Paul Atkins for Laying Groundwork for ICO Comeback
This time, however, the conditions are different. According to Hougan, the revival of ICOs is supported by clearer rules and enforcement. He credited SEC Chairman Paul Atkins for helping shape this shift.
Atkins has publicly called for “safe harbor” frameworks that would allow compliant token sales to take place. His proposal, combined with Coinbase’s self-regulated structure, could pave the way for high-quality ICOs to flourish legally.
Hougan expects “a half-dozen or more billion-dollar ICOs through platforms like Coinbase” by 2026, describing them as a sustainable counterpart to traditional IPOs.
Coinbase’s announcement comes amid a broader resurgence of token fundraising activity. In September, MegaETH raised $50 million in five minutes through a sale hosted on Echo’s Sonar platform, attracting more than $300 million in pledges.
Kraken and Andre Cronje’s Flying Tulip have also launched regulated ICO-style platforms this year, further showing a market shift toward compliant public token offerings.
Hougan believes crypto’s next phase will rebuild fundraising from the ground up, with compliant ICOs potentially becoming a multi-trillion-dollar pillar alongside Bitcoin, stablecoins, and tokenization.
