Crypto’s dirtiest secret is getting a rewrite and Coinbase is holding the pen. After five years of silence, U.S. token sales are back.

Coinbase just restarted the primary market with a structure built to favor real users, not insiders.

The pitch is simple: no more private rounds. No more dump-and-disappear launches. Just one token sale per month, accessible to everyone, on a platform that guarantees liquidity, compliance, and aligned incentives [ANNOUNCEMENT].

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What happened

Coinbase is launching an end-to-end token sales platform for global retail users (including the United States). The first sale will run from November 17 to 22. With that, Coinbase is redesigning how tokens are distributed, priced, and launched.

Key elements:

  • Global retail reach: Coinbase’s 100M+ user distribution.

  • Fair access: One token sale per month with pre-launch access for everyone, $100–$100k ticket sizes, paid in USDC, and zero fees for buyers.

  • Sale window mechanics: One-week request periods instead of FCFS scrambles.

  • Liquidity: Tokens move directly from sale → listing → deep order books.

  • Aligned incentives: Early dumpers automatically receive smaller allocations.

  • Regulatory compliance: Disclosures, lockups, and restrictions on insider sales.

The thesis: Projects struggle to reach actual users through launches. Retail buyers get boxed out or dumped on. Early insiders dominate supply. Market depth is thin. And demand is distorted by a handful of buyers who move early and sell fast. This is Coinbase’s attempt to re-onshore the token sale model, previously dominated by unregulated offshore exchanges and opaque venture capital structures known as Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs).