As more and more blockchain projects arise around the crypto-sphere, investment from all around the globe is piling in. In traditional finance, investors would plow money into crowdfunding from startups, or into IPOs for established companies. The crypto community has developed their own crowdfunding alternative: Launchpads.
Crypto Launchpads, also known as incubators, are platforms which allow decentralized crypto projects to raise funds by selling a percentage of the project's token supply at a discounted price.
Launchpads satisfy two fundamental needs: Decentralized crypto projects acquiring capital to fund marketing and development and investors getting the opportunity at, in their eyes, undervalued tokens.
A launchpad most commonly makes money by taking a % of the total revenue generated by a project to fund their operations and as a reward for their service.
Launchpads allow projects to receive early-stage funding by a secure means. Verified launchpads offer secure funding in a trustless environment, utilizing smart contracts, by not relying on a centralized authority.
Not only do launchpads bring together likeminded investors, making it easier for projects to acquire funding, they are relatively cheap when comparing other methods.
Inside the decentralized Babylons ecosystem is their popular launchpad. Users can invest into a projects IDO (Initial Dex Offering) on the launchpad with $BABI tokens and can see all the upcoming projects through their calendar.
All their IDOs are also announced via their Twitter page, as well as showing off the best IDO return on investments. For example, Heroes TD, which had their IDO on their launchpad has returned investors 200x.
Another cross-chain blockchain launchpad, Polkastarter boasts over $47 million raised over its lifetime of 100+ projects. On top of this, over 34,000 individual investors have used their launchpad to acquire ‘pre-sale’ tokens of their favorite upcoming projects.
Cryptoverse was the largest launch to date, raising over $3 million and bolstering the project to new heights. To do this, investors utilized Polkastarters native token, $POLS, which is used to pay for transactions and as a governance token.
A launchpad run on the Polygon network, firestarter is an IDO launchpad focused on metaverse projects, calling them IMOS (Initial Metaverse Offerings). Their native token is $FLAME, which users can stake to gain early access to the best IMOs.
Uniquely, participants can stake their launchpad tokens to receive incredible returns in $FLAME.
Similar to Firestarter, Gamefi is another launchpad focusing on a particular genre of IDOs. Gamefis expertise is crypto gaming, focusing solely on IGOs (Initial Gaming Offerings).
With over 50 projects launched, Gamefi boasts a massive average of 61x return on projects listed with their launchpads, a huge incentive for investors to invest with their platform.
Seedify.fund is a DAO driven launchpad looking to empower the next generation of blockchain companies through their early-stage funding.
Instead of being vetted by a launchpad, all projects launched on Seedify are voted in through their governance protocols. HODLers of $SFUND will have the chance to vote on any IDO proposal, stake for rewards, and submit their own proposals to the community.
To browse an in-depth view of how Seedify is attempting to combine decentralized governance with IDO launchpads, see their docs here.
The launchpad for many of the most anticipated crypto projects such as Step.App, DAOMaker utilizes its native token $DAO to raise capital for upcoming blockchain projects.
Staking DAO, which grants exceptional staking rewards of up to 70% APY, gives users the best chance of ‘winning’ a slot for anticipated projects on their launchpad.
On the DAO Pad, all projects are heavily scrutinized and vetted before being allowed to launch, keeping their investors safe.
Since 2021, the Paid launchpad has fulfilled over 70 successful project launches for its investors. Their launchpad is a two-part process:
Their launchpad is constantly growing, preparing to support launchpads on some of the biggest networks such as: Polkadot, Avalanche, and Solana.
Whether you want Metaverse of Crypto gaming-specific IDOs, you will find it all on our launchpad list. Launchpads are still a new addition to the Decentralized Finance landscape and are becoming a key component of capital acquisition for every size of project.