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

As the cryptocurrency market approaches 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 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 the eight major Launchpad platforms, including Binance Launchpad, DAO Maker, ChainGPT Pad, Virtuals, CoinTerminal, Fjord Foundry, CoinList, and Seedify, covering their project profiles, issuance mechanisms, return performances, 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 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," thereby 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 annualized returns of up to 300--1500%), 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 ongoing 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 to 12 months.
• 0xFútbol: A blockchain fantasy sports platform themed around soccer, combining collectibles and prediction gameplay, in line 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 returns of the DAO Maker project were mediocre, with an average current ROI of approximately 0.14× the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI average being 3.65×. Most projects saw their prices quickly drop after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform alleviated the losses from price declines through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning even when prices fell. The SHO mechanism somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it has not been able to fully hedge against the overall market weakness. It is worth noting that DAO Maker had better returns in the past (such as Orion Protocol achieving several times growth); the current low ROI is more a reflection of the overall market environment rather than a defect of 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 months of mining activities, distributing the tokens sold as rewards to DAO stakers or liquidity providers. This "stake to earn" model creates demand and liquidity after the IDO.
• DAO Token Binding: Participants of DAO Maker must hold $DAO to participate, thereby cultivating loyalty. The "DAO Power" system records users' holding points to prevent quick sell-offs.

These mechanisms enhance 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 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 who hope 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 dedicated to promoting the incubation of high-quality projects in the fields of NFT, gaming, AI, and DeFi through community consensus mechanisms. 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 layered mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews to replace closed private placement screenings. In 2025, Seedify continues its technological innovation by launching a permissionless bond curve issuance platform, a decentralized curation DAO, and an on-chain social allocation 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, with its IDO scheduled for April 2025, 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 dual-channel fundraising model of $SFUND + public offering, raising approximately $175,000. Early user participation is high, but the coin price performance is average.
• P33L (P33L): An AI satire-themed meme project, issued via bond curve in April 2025, with a total valuation of $250,000, selling 28% of the supply, 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 are expected to have considerable initial momentum upon their launch in 2025, but a general price correction usually follows. 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 increases with purchase demand, and after selling out, automatically generates $SFUND--project token LP pool, ensuring liquidity upon launch and incorporating measures to prevent "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from snatching tokens and protect buyer interests.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, priority access is granted to $SFUND stakers and users with high "social scores" (gained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities). Later on, access 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, Seedify offers instant unlocking or short-term linear unlocking (1-4 weeks) to balance trust and sales pressure. In addition, each token issuance has a 24-hour refund window, allowing buyers to choose a refund in uncertain situations. This mechanism is similar to the downside risk protection of the CoinTerminal model, providing users with an additional confidence guarantee.
• 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 Allocation → Token Issuance → Liquidity Creation → Purchase Pressure and Token Burn. As the issuance 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, with a core focus on gaming and culture, is gradually expanding into the AI and DeFi sectors. Its recent project lineup (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers various segments including DeFi yields, AI gaming, and meme culture. The platform prides itself as a leader in the "Web3 culture and gaming" space and is progressively 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 orderly than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it aims to enhance investor protection while providing new projects with upward potential.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates the advantages of 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 and anti-sniping mechanisms. This is similar to the openness of CoinTerminal, but with added protections. The curatorial DAO absorbs the "review spirit" of DAO Maker and enhances user engagement through social incentive mechanisms (such as Kaito or Ethos points), ultimately forming an integration 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 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 in-depth incubation before project launch through technical support (smart contract auditing, 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 have the right 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, featuring 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 will be 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.

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