Depth Comparison of 8 Major Launchpads, Who Will Be the King of Versions 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 to 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 8 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 venture capital-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 allocation, 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 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 (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 venture capital-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 game 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 the World Cup hotspot.
• Kayen Protocol: Provides DeFi data verification and modular security services, suitable for re-staking and DePIN systems.
• Fusio: Enterprise-grade DePIN platform equipped with AI monitoring mechanisms, designed for enterprise validator operation scenarios.

These cases show that DAO Maker is compatible with gaming, 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 mediocre, with an average current ROI of approximately 0.14× the IDO price, and the highest historical ROI average being 3.65×. Most projects experienced a rapid price decline after listing, although a few breakthrough results did emerge. The platform alleviated losses from price drops through a staking mining mechanism, allowing token holders to continue earning returns even amid price declines. The SHO mechanism has somewhat restrained selling behavior, but it is still difficult to completely hedge against the overall market weakness. It is worth noting that DAO Maker previously had better returns (such as Orion Protocol achieving 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 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 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 rapid selling.

These mechanisms strengthen the sustainability of IDOs in the later stages 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 Game 2.0 (SpeedThrone), sports/fan interaction (0xFútbol), DeFi infrastructure (Kayen), and AI/business services (Fusio). Compared to the trending "Meme-type platforms", DAO Maker is more inclined to build project ecosystems that possess real value and return mechanisms. Its strategy is to create a "community-driven accelerator" that attracts entrepreneurs who wish to balance retail traffic with long-term healthy development.

Seedify: A Community-Driven Next-Generation Launchpad

Platform Positioning and Vision

Since 2021, Seedify ($SFUND) has been committed to promoting high-quality project incubation in the fields of NFT, 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, utilizing a $SFUND staking tier mechanism to ensure user allocation rights, and introduces community reviews to replace closed private placement screenings. In 2025, Seedify continues 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 technology stack.

2025 Representative Project

• Stable Jack (JACK): A fixed/leverage yield protocol deployed on Avalanche, with an IDO completion in April 2025, an FDV valuation of 20 million USD, raising approximately 300,000 USD, and the token is fully unlocked after TGE, but the market response is relatively weak.
• Aiki (AIKI): An AI × gaming prediction platform on the Solana chain, set to launch in May 2025, using the $SFUND + public offering dual-channel model, 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 of supporting 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 are expected to have considerable initial hype when launched in 2025, but a general price correction often follows. 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 mechanisms.

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, with built-in safeguards against "Rug Pull" and "Sniping": a 24-hour refund window and progressive pricing to prevent bots from sniping tokens, ensuring buyer rights.
• Layered Access Mechanism (Staking + Social): In the early stages, priority access is given to $SFUND stakers and users with a high "social score" (obtained through referrals, interactions similar to Kaito, and community activities), and later 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 unlock/refund mechanism: Each project can choose a flexible vesting plan, Seedify offers instant unlock or short-term linear unlock (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 additional confidence assurance.
• Decentralized Curator Program: A network of curators consisting 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 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 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 lineup (Stable Jack, Aiki, P33L) covers multiple sectors 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 provide upside potential for new projects while increasing investor protection.

Unique Strategy Summary

Seedify integrates multiple mechanism advantages to create an "open yet protected" issuance model. Its planned 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, similar to the openness of CoinTerminal, but with added protection. The curatorial DAO absorbs the "review spirit" of DAO Maker and leverages social incentive mechanisms (like Kaito or Ethos points) to enhance user activity, ultimately forming an integration 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 with technical support (smart contract auditing, AI analysis) before projects go live. 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 can receive customized guidance for AI, while stakers of $CGPT will gain access to participate in token sales.

2025 Representative Project

The 2025 project portfolio of ChainGPT Pad integrates AI infrastructure and some games:

• 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 in gaming.
• Flash Protocol (FLASH): A DeFi utility token for ultra-fast DEX trading, equipped with AI predictive analysis capabilities.
• 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 the "Launchdrop" airdrop (rather than a sale) in May 2025.
• Matchain (MAT) & Blink Game AI (BLINK): Two Launchdrops in May 2025------one