Depth Comparison of 8 Major Launchpads: Who Will Be the Version King of 2025?

As the crypto market enters 2025, the Web3 Launchpad ecosystem has evolved into a diverse landscape, with various platforms developing differentiated strategies around different types of projects, users, and funding 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 eight major 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 launch platform balancing retail-friendly and 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 need to stake $DAO tokens and have a long-term holding record to qualify for allocation, emphasizing the concept of "loyalty staking," thereby aligning investor and project long-term interests. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token launches, raising a total of approximately $107 million, with represented projects including My Neighbor Alice and XCAD. The platform has gradually expanded from one-off 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 returns of up to 300-1500%), thereby extending the locking period for community funds. Its core vision is to create a retail-friendly Web3 launch platform with VC-level screening and ongoing incentive mechanisms.

2025 Representative Project

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

• SpeedThrone: An AAA racing game 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, in line 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-grade DePIN platform equipped with AI monitoring mechanisms, designed for enterprise validator operation scenarios.

These cases show that DAO Maker is compatible with gaming, 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 the average current ROI approximately 0.14× of the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI mean being 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price decline after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform mitigates the losses from price drops through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning returns even if the price falls. The SHO mechanism has somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it is still difficult to completely hedge against the overall market weakness. It is worth noting that DAO Maker had better returns in the past (for instance, 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 several 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 tracks user holding points to prevent quick sell-offs.

These mechanisms enhance the sustainability of IDO in the later stages 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. Its 2025 project layout includes Game 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 is more inclined to build a project ecosystem that possesses 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 development.

Seedify: 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. 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, employing a $SFUND staking tier mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews to replace closed private placement screenings. In 2025, Seedify continues its technological innovation, launching a permissionless bond curve issuance platform, a decentralized curation DAO, and an on-chain social distribution mechanism, becoming one of the most cutting-edge Launchpads in the tech 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, to be launched in May 2025, utilizing a dual-channel model of $SFUND + public fundraising, raising approximately $175,000. Early user participation is high, but the coin 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×. Several projects are expected to have considerable initial enthusiasm upon listing in 2025, but generally experience price corrections afterward. This phenomenon has become the current norm for IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe selling 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 increases with purchasing demand, and after selling out, automatically generates the $SFUND-project token LP pool, achieving liquidity upon launch. It also incorporates 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, priority access is given to $SFUND stakers and users with a high "social score" (obtained through referrals, interactions, and community activities). 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 the 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, allowing buyers to choose a refund in uncertain situations. This mechanism provides 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 receive 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 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, 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) covers multiple sectors including DeFi yields, AI gaming, 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 strives to enhance 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 independently, combining automatic liquidity with anti-sybil mechanisms. This is similar to the openness of CoinTerminal but adds more protection. The curation DAO absorbs DAO Maker's "review spirit" and enhances user engagement through social incentive mechanisms, ultimately forming an integration of CoinTerminal's openness, Fjord's fairness mechanism, DAO Maker's interest binding, 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 in-depth incubation through technical support (smart contract auditing, AI analysis) before projects go live. 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 $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 games:

• 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, heralding a new trend in gaming.
• 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 via whitelist 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 - a 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 around 35 IDOs in the past 6 months, raising approximately $10.2 million (about $290,000 each). Most of these are