Investment platform Echo claims to have been secretly opposed by some VC, Dragonfly Partner responds: such conflicts are exaggerated.

Odaily Planet Daily News Renowned cryptocurrency trader Jordan Fish (also known as Cobie), founder of the angel investment platform Echo, said that some VC are hindering the success of Echo. They are pressuring cryptocurrency projects not to offer lower prices to Echo investors or to discourage community sales (except for later high valuation rounds). Echo's concerns are not unique. Matt O'Connor, co-founder of IC0 platform Legion incubated by Delphi Labs, said that although Legion has not encountered too much direct hostility, some VC will push projects to avoid public sales due to regulatory risks, and advise against discounted valuations and shortened vesting periods. "For me, the vesting part is particularly ironic, because if the team airdrops tokens in unlocked form, VCs won't complain, but when the team sells a small portion of tokens in unlocked form, it becomes a problem," O'Connor said. Some projects supported by VC have been successfully launched, such as MegaLabs and Initia. OConnor said that the encryption AI project Almanak recently sold on Legion at a price 10% lower than its VC round. However, he added that other teams, especially those that raised funds from VC 3-6 months ago, said that their investors do not support similar discounts. Cobie and OConnor refused to disclose the specific names of the VCs who they said were boycotting their platform. However, Cobie said, "What we generally see is that Echo received some allocation in a round of financing, and then got cold shouldered, and then the same project said their VC suggested valuing Echo at 3-5 times higher. Then we usually just tell them to buzz off." If the price is lower than what they paid, some VC will try to 'block' the agreed Echo financing round price. 'In any case, they seem very dissatisfied with this,' he said.

Shuyao Kong, co-founder of MegaLabs, the developer behind MegaETH, raised $10 million on Echo in just 3 minutes last month, making it the largest sale on the platform to date. She revealed that she has also heard of some projects being resisted by VC due to undervaluation of Echo investors. Despite these allegations, several VC firms have downplayed the severity of the issue. Rob Hadick, a general partner at Dragonfly, stated that the conflicts between VC and platforms like Echo have been "exaggerated" to a large extent. He said that these platforms complement VC financing, helping projects build a stronger community while maintaining a cooperative relationship with investors. However, he added that lower-quality VC (those that do not provide real value) may feel threatened by the rise of these platforms, 'For those VCs who are really nervous, they either adapt or go bankrupt.' Hadick also said, 'With the public discussion on X, the tense situation may continue to escalate,' but he added that this is mainly 'a made-up story' by traders or angel investors for their own motives and will not affect VCs or founders. Delphi Digital co-founder and CEO Anil Lulla holds a similar view. He describes Echo's statement as a "game of telephone," implying that misunderstandings or isolated statements are being exaggerated. Lulla states that most well-known VC firms encourage their portfolio companies to use platforms like Echo and Legion because such fundraising helps with project distribution and usually only accounts for a small portion of the funds raised. (The Block)