Depth 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 diversified 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 Pool), Launchpad has become the core vehicle for early investment and project launches 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, market positioning, and unique innovations.

DAO Maker: A Launchpad Balancing Retail Friendliness with 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 concept of "loyalty staking", which aligns the long-term interests of investors and projects. Since 2019, DAO Maker has facilitated over 179 token offerings, raising approximately $107 million in total, 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 such as DAO Farms and Vaults allowing users to continuously earn token rewards during the staking period (with annual yields up to 300--1500%), thereby extending the community's fund locking 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 recently focuses 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 football-themed blockchain fantasy sports platform that combines collectibles and prediction gameplay, aligning with the World Cup hotspot.
• 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 operating scenarios.

These cases demonstrate that DAO Maker is compatible with a wide range of sports/fan economy and AI/infrastructure projects.

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 about 0.14 times the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI mean being 3.65 times. Most projects experienced a rapid price drop after listing, although there were still a few breakthrough results. The platform alleviates losses from price declines through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning returns even when prices are falling. The SHO mechanism somewhat curbed selling behavior, but it is still difficult 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 multiple 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 months of mining activities, distributing the sold tokens 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 fostering loyalty. The "DAO Power" system records users' holding points to prevent rapid selling.

These mechanisms strengthen the sustainability of the post-IDO phase while maintaining market enthusiasm, and reflect 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 leans towards building a project ecosystem with 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 dedicated to promoting the incubation of high-quality projects in the fields of NFTs, gaming, AI, and DeFi through a community consensus mechanism. To date, 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, implementing a $SFUND staking tier mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews to replace closed private placement screenings. In 2025, Seedify continued 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 leading Launchpads at the forefront of 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 and 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 model of $SFUND + public fundraising, raising approximately $175,000. Early user participation is high, but the coin's 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 of supporting innovative cultural 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 popularity when they launch in 2025, but a general price correction follows. This phenomenon has become the norm for current IDOs. Seedify aims to avoid severe sell-off pressure and promote long-term value by introducing bond curves and flexible unlocking mechanisms.

Mechanism Innovation Highlights

• Smart Unified Curve Issuance: Token prices dynamically rise with purchasing demand, automatically generating $SFUND--project token LP pools after sell-out, ensuring immediate liquidity upon launch, with built-in protections against "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from snatching up tokens and protect buyer rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, priority access will be granted to $SFUND stakers and users with high "social scores" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, 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 whales.
• Investor-friendly unlock/refund mechanism: Each project can choose a flexible vesting schedule, Seedify offers instant unlock or short-term linear unlock (1-4 weeks) to balance trust and sales pressure. In addition, every token issuance has a 24-hour refund window, allowing buyers to opt for a refund in case of uncertainty. This mechanism is similar to the down-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 receive revenue sharing, allocation quotas, and community whitelists.
• $SFUND Incentive Flywheel: Each issuance event injects new use cases for $SFUND. Staking Level → Token Distribution → Token Issuance → Liquidity Creation → Buying Pressure and Token Destruction. 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, with a core focus on gaming and culture, is gradually expanding into the fields of AI and DeFi. Its recent project line (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers multiple sectors such as 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 organized than Virtuals. By integrating joint curves and refund mechanisms, it aims to provide new projects with upside potential while enhancing investor protection.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates multiple mechanisms 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 and 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 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 with technical support (smart contract audits, AI analysis) before project launch. Participation requires holding or staking $CGPT tokens, which are supported by fees from the platform's AI products (a portion of user fees will be burned). The vision of ChainGPT Pad is to become the premier DEAI (Decentralized AI) issuance tool: any project launched on it can receive customized guidance for AI, while $CGPT stakers will gain the right to participate in 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 feeding. 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 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------one 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