Depth Comparison of 8 Major Launchpads: Who Will Be the King of Versions in 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 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 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 Screening

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" to align the long-term interests of investors and projects. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token launches, 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 (annual returns of up to 300--1500%) during the staking period, thereby extending the locking period of community funds. 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 to 12 months.
• 0xFútbol: A blockchain fantasy sports platform themed around soccer, combining collectibles and prediction gameplay, aligned with the World Cup hotspot.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides data verification and modular security services, suitable for re-staking and systems.
• Fusio: An enterprise-level platform equipped with AI monitoring mechanisms, designed for enterprise validator operating 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 flat, with the average current ROI being approximately 0.14× of the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI average being 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 fall. The SHO mechanism has somewhat suppressed selling behavior, but it is still difficult to fully hedge against the overall weakness of the market. It is worth noting that DAO Maker has performed better in the past (for example, 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 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 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 of 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 strengthen the sustainability of the IDO in the later stages while maintaining market enthusiasm, and 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), infrastructure (Kayen), and AI/business services (Fusio). Compared to the "Meme-type platforms" that chase trends, 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" to attract entrepreneurs who wish 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 high-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 million to $55 million. The platform combines the advantages of CEX and adopts a $SFUND staking tiered mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, while introducing community review instead of closed private placement selection. In 2025, Seedify continues its technological innovation, launching a permissionless bond curve issuance platform, a decentralized curatorial DAO, and an on-chain social distribution mechanism, becoming one of the 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 market response has been weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana chain, set to launch in May 2025, using a dual-channel model of $SFUND + public offering, raising approximately $175,000. Early user engagement is high, but the coin price performance is average.
• 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 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×. Many projects set to launch in 2025 have considerable initial heat, but generally experience price corrections afterward. This phenomenon has become the norm for current IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe sell 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 rises with purchasing demand, and after selling out, automatically generates $SFUND -- project token LP pool, achieving liquidity upon launch, and built-in 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 granted to $SFUND stakers and users with high "social scores" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), while in the later stages, 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 schedule, with Seedify offering instant unlock or short-term linear unlock (1-4 weeks) to balance trust with 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 additional confidence assurance.
• 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 → 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 can benefit 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 line (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers various sectors including yield, AI games, and Meme culture. The platform prides itself as a leader in the "Web3 culture and gaming" arena 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 organized than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it aims to enhance investor protection while providing new projects with upside 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-sniping 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 Launchpads.

ChainGPT Pad: A Launchpad Focused on Artificial Intelligence

Platform Positioning and Vision

ChainGPT Pad is the preferred launchpad for AI-driven Web3 startups. It is part of the ChainGPT ecosystem, known for its AI chatbot and developer tools, and undergoes in-depth incubation with technical support (smart contract auditing, AI analysis) before project launch. Participation requires holding or staking $CGPT tokens, which are supported by the platform's AI product fees (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 can receive customized guidance for AI, while $CGPT stakers can gain access to 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), 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 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 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.

Investment Return Performance

ChainGPT Pad is very active, having conducted about 35 IDOs in the past 6 months, raising approximately 10.2 million dollars (about 290 thousand each). Most of these are micro-cap, early-stage.