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

As the crypto market enters 2025, the Web3 Launchpad ecosystem has evolved into a diversified landscape, with various platforms undertaking 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 Launchpad platforms, including Binance Launchpad, DAO Maker, ChainGPT Pad, Virtuals, CoinTerminal, Fjord Foundry, CoinList, and Seedify, covering their project profiles, issuance mechanisms, return performance, track positioning, and unique innovations.

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

Platform Positioning and Vision

DAO Maker connects retail users with a VC-like project selection 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," thereby aligning the long-term interests of investors and projects. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token offerings, 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 such as DAO Farms and Vaults allowing users to continuously earn token rewards during the staking period (annual yields of up to 300--1500%), thus extending the community's fund-locking time. Its core vision is to create a retail-friendly Web3 launch platform with VC-level selection 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 6 to 12 months of staking mining.
• 0xFútbol: A football-themed blockchain fantasy sports platform that combines collectibles and predictive gameplay, closely aligned with World Cup trends.
• 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 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 return of the DAO Maker project was mediocre, with the average current ROI being approximately 0.14× of the IDO price, and the highest historical average ROI being 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price drop after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform mitigated losses from price declines through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning profits even when prices fall. The SHO mechanism has somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it is still difficult 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.

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 months of mining activities, distributing the sold tokens as rewards to DAO stakers or liquidity providers. This "staking to earn" model creates demand and liquidity after the IDO.
• DAO Token Binding: Participants in 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 enhance the sustainability of IDOs in the later stages while maintaining market enthusiasm, and also 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 chasing trends with "Meme-type platforms", DAO Maker prefers to build a project ecosystem with real value and return mechanisms. Its strategy is to create a "community-driven accelerator" that attracts entrepreneurs who want 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 high-quality project incubation in the fields of NFTs, gaming, AI, and DeFi through a community consensus mechanism. As of now, 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, using a layered mechanism of $SFUND staking to ensure user allocation rights, and introducing community reviews to replace closed private placement screening. In 2025, Seedify continues its technological innovation by launching a permissionless bond curve issuance platform, a decentralized curation DAO, and an on-chain social distribution mechanism, becoming one of the leading Launchpads at the forefront of the technology stack.

2025 Representative Projects

• Stable Jack (JACK): A fixed/leverage yield protocol deployed on Avalanche, completed its IDO in April 2025, with an FDV valuation of 20 million USD, raising approximately 300,000 USD. The tokens are fully unlocked after TGE, but the market response has been relatively weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana chain, scheduled for release in May 2025. It adopts a dual-channel model of $SFUND + public offering, raising approximately $175,000. Early user engagement is high, but the price performance is average.
• P33L (P33L): An AI satire Meme project that will be issued via a bond curve method in April 2025, with a total valuation of $250,000. 28% of the supply has been sold, 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 afterwards. 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

• Smart Joint Curve Issuance: The token price dynamically rises with purchasing demand, automatically generating $SFUND--the project token LP pool after selling out, ensuring liquidity upon launch. It includes protective measures against "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from sniping tokens and protect buyers' rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, priority access is granted to $SFUND stakers and users with a high "social score" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), while later, it will be open 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 plan, and 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, allowing buyers to opt for a refund in uncertain situations. This mechanism is similar to the downside risk protection of the CoinTerminal model, providing users with an additional 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 activity injects new use cases into $SFUND. Staking level → Token allocation → Token issuance → Liquidity creation → Buying pressure and token burn. As the issuance quantity increases, the inherent 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, with a core focus on gaming and culture, is gradually expanding into the fields of AI and DeFi. Its recent project lineup (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) encompasses multiple sectors including DeFi yields, AI gaming, and Meme culture. The platform claims to be a leader in the "Web3 culture and gaming" space, progressively embracing frontier 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 increase investor protection while providing new projects with upward potential.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates multiple mechanisms to create an "open yet protected" issuance model. Its permissionless bond curve platform, set to launch by the end of 2025, will allow any team to issue tokens autonomously, combining automatic liquidity and anti-snipe mechanisms, similar to the openness of CoinTerminal but with additional protections. The curation DAO incorporates the "review spirit" of DAO Maker and enhances user engagement through social incentive mechanisms (such as Kaito or Ethos points), ultimately forming a synthesis of CoinTerminal's openness, Fjord's fairness mechanism, DAO Maker's interest binding, and community-oriented culture, heralding the emergence of a new generation of 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 before project launch through technical support (smart contract audits, AI analysis). Participation requires holding or staking $CGPT tokens, which are supported by the fees from the platform's AI products (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 Projects

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 is approximately 5 times.
• Arcade (ARC): An interoperable, NFT-based competitive gaming platform that signifies 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 crypto content discovery platform (an "alpha feed" platform). Issued through a whitelist method in April 2025.
• AdixAI (ADIX): An AI advertising optimization network. Uniquely, ADIX is distributed to eligible $CGPT stakers through 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)------ provided 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