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

As the crypto 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 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 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 Friendliness 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 need to stake $DAO tokens and have a long-term holding record to qualify for allocations, emphasizing the "loyalty staking" concept, which aligns 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 like DAO Farms and Vaults allowing users to continuously earn token rewards (with annual yields of up to 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 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 staking mining for 6-12 months.
• 0xFútbol: A blockchain fantasy sports platform themed around football, combining collection and prediction gameplay, closely aligned with the World Cup hotspot.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides data validation and modular security services, suitable for re-staking and systems.
• Fusio: An enterprise-level 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 themes.

Investment Return Performance

In the first half of 2025, the overall returns of the DAO Maker project were modest, with the average current ROI being approximately 0.14× of the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI average at 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price 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 returns even as prices fell. The SHO mechanism has somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it has yet to fully hedge against the overall market weakness. It is worth noting that DAO Maker had previously better returns (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 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 earnings 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 selling.

These mechanisms enhance the sustainability of IDO in the later stages while maintaining market enthusiasm, reflecting the dual positioning of DAO Maker that combines the breadth of retail investors with the depth of project reviews.

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), infrastructure (Kayen), and AI/business services (Fusio). Compared to the trend-chasing "Meme-type platforms", DAO Maker leans towards building an ecosystem of projects that possess 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 NFT, gaming, AI, and other fields through a community consensus mechanism. To date, Seedify has facilitated the issuance of over 100 tokens, raising approximately $40-55 million in total. The platform combines the advantages of CEX, employing a $SFUND staking tiered mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews to replace closed private placement screening. In 2025, Seedify continues its technological innovation, 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, completed its IDO in April 2025, with an FDV valuation of 20 million USD, raising approximately 300,000 USD. The token is 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 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 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 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 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 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 a $SFUND-project token LP pool after selling out, ensuring 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 protect buyer rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, access will be prioritized for $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, creating 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, 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 extra layer of confidence.
• 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 limits, and community whitelist.
• $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 quantity 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 starts with games and culture at its core and is gradually expanding into AI and other fields. Its recent project lineup (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers multiple sectors such as yield, AI games, and Meme culture. The platform prides itself as a "Web3 culture and gaming" leader and is progressively embracing cutting-edge trends like on-chain AI and protocols. Seedify positions itself as a community-first alternative: more open than Binance, more fun than CoinList, and more organized 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 multiple mechanism advantages to create an "open yet protected" issuance model. Its permissionless bond curve platform, scheduled for launch by the end of 2025, will allow 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 (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 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 through technical support (smart contract auditing, AI analysis) before project launch. 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 earn the right to participate in token sales.

2025 Representative Project

The ChainGPT Pad's 2025 project portfolio 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 heralds a new trend.
• Flash Protocol (FLASH): A 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 the "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)—are provided for free to community members to