Insights into the 2025 Cryptocurrency Launchpad Landscape: A Deep Comparison of 8 Mainstream Platforms

As the cryptocurrency market enters 2025, the Web3 launch platform (Launchpad) ecosystem has evolved into a diverse landscape, with various platforms developing differentiated layouts around different types of projects, users, and financing models. From issuance platforms supported by centralized exchanges to decentralized IDO mechanisms, and new solutions like LBP (Liquidity Bootstrap Auction), Launchpad has become the core medium for early investment and project initiation in the crypto world. This article provides an in-depth comparison of the eight major mainstream Launchpad platforms, including DAO Maker, Seedify, ChainGPT Pad, Virtuals, CoinTerminal, Fjord Foundry, CoinList, and Binance Launchpad, covering their project profiles, issuance mechanisms, return performance, track positioning, and unique innovations.

DAO Maker: A Launchpad Balancing Retail-Friendly Features with VC-Style Selection

platform positioning and vision

DAO Maker connects retail users with a VC-like project screening system through its innovative "Strong Holder Offering" (SHO) mechanism. Users must stake $DAO tokens and have a long-term holding record to qualify for allocations, emphasizing the concept of "loyalty staking," thus aligning the long-term interests of investors and projects. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token issuances, raising approximately $107 million, with representative projects including My Neighbor Alice and XCAD. The platform has gradually expanded from one-time sales to an "accelerator ecosystem," with new features like DAO Farms and Vaults allowing users to continuously earn token rewards during the staking period (with annual yields of up to 300-1500%), thereby extending the community's fund lock-up time. Its core vision is to create a retail-friendly Web3 launch platform with VC-level screening and continuous incentive mechanisms.

2025 Representative Projects

DAO Maker has recently focused on projects with clear narratives and diverse types, including:

• SpeedThrone: A AAA-level racing project that integrates AI elements, supporting 6-12 months of staking mining.
• 0xFútbol: A football-themed blockchain fantasy sports platform that combines collectibles and prediction gameplay, aligning with the World Cup hotspot.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides DeFi data verification and modular security services, suitable for re-staking and DePIN systems.
• Fusio: An enterprise-level DePIN platform equipped with AI monitoring mechanisms, designed for enterprise validator operational scenarios.

These cases show that DAO Maker is compatible with sports/fan economy and AI/infrastructure projects, covering a wide range of topics.

Investment Return Performance

In the first half of 2025, the overall return of the DAO Maker project was mediocre, with an average current ROI of about 0.14× the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI average was 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price drop after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough achievements. The platform alleviated the losses from the price decline through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning even when prices fell. The SHO mechanism has somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it is still difficult to fully hedge against the overall weakness of the market. It is worth noting that DAO Maker had better returns in the past (e.g., Orion Protocol achieved several times growth), and the current low ROI is more a reflection of the overall market environment rather than a defect in the platform mechanism itself.

Mechanism Innovation Highlights

• Strong Holder Offering (SHO): Obtain allocation rights by staking $DAO tokens, rewarding long-term holders.
• Yield Mining/Vaults: New projects often come with several months of mining activities, distributing the tokens sold as rewards to DAO stakers or liquidity providers. This "staking to earn" model creates demand and liquidity after the IDO.
• DAO Token Binding: Participants of DAO Maker must hold $DAO to participate, thereby fostering loyalty. The "DAO Power" system records users' holding points to prevent rapid sell-offs.

These mechanisms strengthen the sustainability of the post-IDO phase while maintaining market enthusiasm, reflecting DAO Maker's dual positioning that combines the breadth of retail investors with the depth of project review.

Track Focus and Strategic Positioning

DAO Maker focuses on emerging narratives and practical projects, with its 2025 project layout covering 2.0 (SpeedThrone), sports/fan interaction (0xFútbol), DeFi infrastructure (Kayen), and AI/business services (Fusio). Compared to chasing hot trends with "Meme-type platforms", DAO Maker is more inclined to build a project ecosystem with real value and return mechanisms. Its strategy is to create a "community-driven accelerator" that attracts entrepreneurs looking to balance retail traffic with long-term healthy growth.

Seedify: A Community-Driven Next-Generation Launchpad

platform positioning and vision

Since 2021, Seedify ($SFUND) has been committed to promoting the incubation of high-quality projects in the fields of NFT, gaming, AI, and DeFi through a community consensus mechanism. As of now, Seedify has facilitated the issuance of over 100 tokens, raising approximately $40-55 million in total. The platform combines the advantages of CEX and DeFi, adopting a $SFUND staking tiered mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introducing community reviews to replace closed private placement screenings. In 2025, Seedify continues to innovate technologically, launching a permissionless bond curve issuance platform, a decentralized curation DAO, and an on-chain social allocation mechanism, becoming one of the leading Launchpads at the forefront of technology stack.

2025 Representative Project

• Stable Jack (JACK): A fixed/leverage yield protocol deployed on Avalanche, completing its IDO in April 2025, with an FDV valuation of $20 million, raising approximately $300,000. The token will be fully unlocked after TGE, but the market response has been relatively weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana chain, set to launch in May 2025, utilizing a $SFUND + public offering dual-channel model, raising approximately $175,000. Early user participation is high, but the token price performance is average.
• P33L (P33L): An AI satire meme project, issued via a bond curve method in April 2025, with a total valuation of $250,000, selling 28% of the supply and raising approximately $70,000, reflecting Seedify's strategy of supporting cultural innovation projects.

Investment Return Performance

Despite the overall cooling of the market, the historical average highest ROI of the Seedify project remains around 8×. In 2025, several projects are expected to have considerable initial heat upon listing, but are generally followed by price corrections. This phenomenon has become the current norm for IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe sell pressure and promote long-term value by introducing bond curves and flexible unlocking mechanisms.

Mechanism Innovation Highlights

• Intelligent Joint Curve Issuance: The token price dynamically rises with purchase demand, automatically generating the $SFUND-project token LP pool after selling out, achieving liquidity upon launch, and incorporating safeguards against "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from sniping tokens and ensure buyer rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, access is prioritized for $SFUND stakers and users with high "social scores" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), and later opened to the public, forming a gamified entry logic to encourage active contributors. This "social distribution layer" rewards community builders, not just whales.
• Investor-friendly unlocking/refund mechanism: Each project can choose a flexible vesting schedule, Seedify offers instant unlocking or short-term linear unlocking (1-4 weeks) to balance trust and sales pressure. Additionally, each token issuance has a 24-hour refund window that allows buyers to choose a refund in uncertain situations. This mechanism is similar to the down-risk protection of the CoinTerminal model, providing users with additional confidence assurance.
• Decentralized Curator Program: A network of curators composed of KOLs, VCs, guilds, and DAOs selects projects for the platform and can earn revenue sharing, allocation quotas, and community whitelists.
• $SFUND Incentive Flywheel: Each issuance activity injects new use cases for $SFUND. Staking Level → Token Distribution → Token Issuance → Liquidity Creation → Buying Pressure and Token Burn. As the issuance volume increases, the intrinsic demand for $SFUND tokens also grows. Seedify's design ensures that its native token benefits from the ecosystem it drives.

Track Focus and Strategic Positioning

Seedify is gradually expanding from a core focus on games and culture to the fields of AI and DeFi. Its recent project line (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers multiple sectors such as DeFi yield, AI games, and Meme culture. The platform prides itself as a leader in the "Web3 culture and gaming" space and is gradually embracing cutting-edge trends like on-chain AI and DePIN protocols. Seedify positions itself as a community-first alternative: more open than Binance, more engaging than CoinList, and more organized than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it aims to provide new projects with upside potential while enhancing investor protection.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify creates an "open and protected" issuance model by integrating multiple mechanisms. Its permissionless bond curve platform, scheduled for launch by the end of 2025, allows any team to issue tokens independently, combining automatic liquidity with anti-sniping mechanisms, similar to the openness of CoinTerminal, but with additional protections. The curatorial DAO absorbs the "review spirit" of DAO Maker and enhances user engagement through social incentive mechanisms (like Kaito or Ethos points), ultimately forming a synthesis of CoinTerminal's openness, Fjord's fairness mechanism, DAO Maker's interest alignment, and community-oriented culture, heralding the prototype of a new generation Launchpad.

ChainGPT Pad: A Launchpad Focused on Artificial Intelligence

platform positioning and vision

ChainGPT Pad is the preferred launchpad for AI-first Web3 startups. It is part of the ChainGPT ecosystem (known for its AI chatbot and developer tools) and undergoes deep incubation with technical support (smart contract auditing, AI analysis) before the project goes live. Participation requires holding or staking $CGPT tokens, which are supported by the platform's AI product fees (a portion of user fees will be burned). The vision of ChainGPT Pad is to become the primary DEAI (Decentralized AI) issuance tool: any project launched on it will receive customized guidance for AI, and $CGPT stakers will gain access to participate in token sales.

2025 representative project

The 2025 project portfolio of ChainGPT Pad integrates AI infrastructure and some:

• Omnia Protocol (OMNIA): A privacy-focused blockchain access provider (RPC relay), crucial for AI data feeds. ATH ROI approximately 5 times.
• Arcade (ARC): An interoperable, NFT-based competitive gaming platform that heralds a new trend.
• Flash Protocol (FLASH): A DeFi utility token for ultra-fast DEX trading, equipped with AI predictive analytics.
• NextGem AI (GEMAI): AI-driven encryption content discovery platform (an "alpha feed" platform). Issued through whitelist method in April 2025.
• AdixAI (ADIX): An AI advertising optimization network. Uniquely, ADIX will be distributed to eligible $CGPT stakers through the "Launchdrop" airdrop (rather than a sale) in May 2025.
• Matchain (MAT) & Blink Game AI (BLINK): Two Launchdrops in May 2025 - a zk-rollup chain (MAT) and a gamified AI battle game (BLINK) - provided for free to community members to promote adoption.

Investment Return Performance

ChainGPT Pad is very active, having conducted about 35 IDOs in the past 6 months, raising approximately