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

As the cryptocurrency 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 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 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-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 like DAO Farms and Vaults allowing users to continuously earn token rewards during the staking period (with annual returns as high as 300-1500%), thus extending the community's fund lock-up period. 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: A AAA racing project that integrates AI elements, supporting staking mining for 6-12 months.
• 0xFútbol: A football-themed blockchain fantasy sports platform that combines collectibles and prediction gameplay, aligning with the World Cup trend.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides DeFi data verification 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 a wide range of projects in sports/fan economy and AI/infrastructure.

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, while the highest historical average ROI was 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price decline after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform alleviated the losses from price drops through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning returns even when prices fell. 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 has 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 Issuance (SHO): Obtain distribution rights by staking $DAO tokens to reward 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 in DAO Maker must hold $DAO to participate, thereby fostering loyalty. The "DAO Power" system records user holding points to prevent quick sell-offs.

These mechanisms not only maintain market enthusiasm but also enhance the sustainability of IDOs in the later stages, reflecting DAO Maker's dual positioning of combining retail breadth with project review Depth.

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 project ecosystems 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 the fields of NFTs, gaming, AI, and DeFi through a community consensus mechanism. As of now, Seedify has facilitated over 100 token issuances, raising a total of approximately $40 million to $55 million. The platform combines the advantages of CEX and DeFi, adopting a layered mechanism of $SFUND staking to ensure user allocation rights, and introducing community reviews to replace 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 distribution mechanism, becoming one of the most cutting-edge Launchpads in the tech stack.

2025 Project Representation

• 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 tokens are fully unlocked after TGE, but market response has been relatively weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana blockchain, 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 token price performs moderately.
• P33L (P33L): An AI satire meme project, issued in April 2025 through a bond curve method, 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, Seedify project's historical average highest ROI remains around 8×. Several projects scheduled for launch in 2025 show considerable initial enthusiasm, but a general price correction follows. This phenomenon has become the current norm for IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe selling pressure and promote long-term value by introducing a bond curve and flexible unlocking mechanism.

Mechanism Innovation Highlights

• Smart Joint Curve Issuance: The token price dynamically increases with purchasing demand, automatically generating $SFUND - project token LP pool after sold out, ensuring liquidity upon launch. It also includes safeguards 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, access will be prioritized for $SFUND stakers and users with a high "social score" (acquired through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), and later will be open to the public, forming 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 that allows buyers to opt for a refund in case of uncertainty. This mechanism is similar to the downside risk protection of the CoinTerminal model, providing users with additional confidence assurance.
• 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 quotas, and community whitelists.
• $SFUND Incentive Flywheel: Each issuance activity injects new use cases for $SFUND. Staking Level → Token Allocation → Token Issuance → Liquidity Creation → Purchase Pressure and Token Destruction. As the issuance amount 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 games and culture as its core starting point, 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 games, and Meme culture. The platform claims to be 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 engaging than CoinList, and more orderly than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it seeks to enhance investor protection while providing the potential for new project upside.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates multiple mechanisms to create an "open and protected" issuance model. Its planned 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-sniping mechanisms. This is similar to the openness of CoinTerminal but adds more protection. The Curated 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, DAO Maker's interest alignment, and community-oriented culture, heralding the emergence of the next 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 through technical support (smart contract audits, 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 stakers of $CGPT will gain 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), crucial for AI data feeds. ATH ROI approximately 5 times.
• Arcade (ARC): An interoperable, NFT-based competitive gaming platform, heralding 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 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 one