Depth comparison of 8 mainstream Launchpads, who will be the version king in 2025?

As the cryptocurrency market enters 2025, the Web3 launch platform (Launchpad) ecosystem has evolved into a diversified 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 such as LBP (Liquidity Bootstrapping Auction), Launchpad has become the core vehicle for early investment and project initiation in the crypto world. This article provides an in-depth comparison of 8 major mainstream Launchpad platforms, including DAO Maker, Seedify, ChainGPT Pad, Virtuals, CoinTerminal, Fjord Foundry, CoinList, and Binance Launchpad, covering their project overview, issuance mechanisms, return performance, track positioning, and unique innovations.

DAO Maker: A Launchpad Balancing Retail Friendliness and VC-Style Screening

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" to align investors' and projects' long-term interests. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token launches, 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 (with annual yields reaching 300-1500%) during the staking period, 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 Project

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

• SpeedThrone: An AAA racing project that integrates AI elements, supporting staking mining for 6-12 months.
• 0xFútbol: A blockchain fantasy sports platform themed around football, combining collectibles and prediction gameplay, closely aligned with the World Cup hotspot.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides DeFi data validation 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 operation 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 returns of the DAO Maker project were mediocre, with an average current ROI of about 0.14× the IDO price, and the highest historical average ROI being 3.65×. Most projects saw a rapid price decline after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform mitigated losses from price drops through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning returns even when prices fall. The SHO mechanism somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it has yet to fully hedge against the overall market weakness. 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 flaw in the platform's 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 quick sell-offs.

These mechanisms strengthen the sustainability of IDOs in the later stages while maintaining market enthusiasm, and reflect DAO Maker's dual positioning of combining 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 the trend-chasing "Meme-type platforms", DAO Maker is more inclined to build project ecosystems that possess real value and return mechanisms. Its strategy is to create a "community-driven accelerator" to attract entrepreneurs who hope to balance retail traffic with long-term healthy development.

Seedify: The Community-Driven Next Generation Launchpad

Platform Positioning and Vision

Since 2021, Seedify ($SFUND) has been committed to promoting the incubation of quality projects in the fields of NFT, gaming, AI, and DeFi through a community consensus mechanism. To date, Seedify has facilitated the issuance of over 100 tokens, raising approximately $40 million to $55 million in total. The platform combines the advantages of CEX and DeFi by adopting a layered mechanism for $SFUND staking to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews in place of 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 USD, raising approximately 300,000 USD. The tokens will be fully unlocked after TGE, but the market response has been weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana chain, set to launch in May 2025. It adopts a dual-channel model of $SFUND + public offering, raising approximately $175,000. Early user participation is high, but the token price performance is average.
• P33L (P33L): An AI satire meme project, issued through 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 to support culturally innovative projects.

Investment Return Performance

Despite the overall cooling of the market, the historical average highest ROI of the Seedify project remains around 8×. Several projects set to launch in 2025 show considerable initial enthusiasm, but generally experience price corrections afterward. This phenomenon has become the current norm for IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe sell-offs and promote long-term value by introducing bond curves and flexible unlocking mechanisms.

Mechanism Innovation Highlights

• Smart Joint Curve Issuance: The token price dynamically rises with purchasing demand, and after selling out, it automatically generates the $SFUND-project token LP pool, achieving liquidity upon launch. It also includes protections against "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from buying tokens and ensure buyers' rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, priority access will be granted to $SFUND stakers and users with high "social scores" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), while later it will be opened to the public, forming a gamified entry logic that encourages 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, with Seedify offering 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, allowing buyers to opt for a refund in case of uncertainty. This mechanism is similar to the down risk protection of the CoinTerminal model, providing users with an extra layer of confidence.
• Decentralized Curator Program: A curator network 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 event injects new use cases for $SFUND. Staking Level → Token Distribution → Token Issuance → Liquidity Creation → Buying Pressure and Token Burn. As the issuance amount increases, the intrinsic demand for $SFUND tokens also grows. Seedify's design ensures that its native token can benefit from the ecosystem it drives.

Track Focus and Strategic Positioning

Seedify starts with games and culture at its core and is gradually expanding into the fields of AI and DeFi. Its recent project lineup (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers various 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 such as on-chain AI and DePIN protocols. Seedify positions itself as a community-first alternative: more open than Binance, more fun than CoinList, and more orderly than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it aims to provide new project upside potential while enhancing investor protection.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates multiple mechanisms to create an "open yet protected" issuance model. Its permissionless bond curve platform, scheduled to launch by the end of 2025, will allow any team to issue tokens autonomously, combining automated liquidity and anti-snipe mechanisms, similar to the openness of CoinTerminal but with added protections. The curatorial DAO absorbs the "review spirit" of DAO Maker and enhances user activity through social incentive mechanisms (such as Kaito or Ethos points), ultimately forming a synthesis of CoinTerminal's openness, Fjord's fairness, DAO Maker's interest alignment, and community-oriented culture, heralding the emergence of a new generation of Launchpads.

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 before project launch through technical support (smart contract audits, AI analysis). 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, while stakers of $CGPT will gain participation rights 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) that is 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): An AI-driven cryptocurrency content discovery platform (an "alpha feed" platform). Issued through whitelist in April 2025.
• AdixAI (ADIX): An AI advertising optimization network. Uniquely, ADIX is distributed to eligible $CGPT stakers via a "Launchdrop" airdrop (rather than a sale) in May 2025.
• Matchain (MAT) & Blink Game AI (BLINK): Two Launchdrops in May 2025 - one zk-rollup chain (MAT) and a gamified AI battle game (BLINK) - offered 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