Those who existed in 2017 probably remember the initial coin offering (ICO) craze, which saw swaths of new projects spring up, many of which generated staggering returns for participants in a matter of weeks or months.
Although many ICO-funded projects turned out to be failures, a small proportion grew and evolved to become today's heavyweight blockchain platforms, including Ether (ETH), Filecoin (FIL), Polkadot (POINT) and Cardano (THERE ARE), Each of which is in the top 30 largest crypto assets by market capitalization.
The average ICO generated a whopping 1,320% profit for short-term investors, making them one of the most attractive investment opportunities in recent years, despite their less than stellar long-term performance overall.
But there was a major problem. Not only was it incredibly difficult to accurately measure the robustness of a project due to the sheer number of ICOs and the simultaneous euphoria in the market, but securing a spot in top-tier ICOs was nearly impossible for regular users, often requiring sheer luck, connections. or a considerable investment to secure a slot.
The beginning of the changes
This began to change in 2019 with the advent of the Binance Launchpad, which for the first time, provided a path that opened up early-stage projects to the masses, or more specifically, to anyone holding Binance's native utility token (BNB).
Although the Binance Launchpad arguably powered the democratic cryptocurrency crowdfunding space, it has gradually become less and less accessible. Now, users need to maintain exorbitantly large sums of BNB to ensure a reasonable size allocation of their DEX initial offerings (IDO), which makes it anything but fair access.
But the past year has seen the advent of a host of alternative platforms, all with a single goal in mind: democratizing access to the next generation of crypto projects and protocols. Known simply as launch pads, these platforms feature a curated and curated list of new projects that are available to their users.
The vast majority of this year's best performing assets have carried out the final phase of their token sale via one or more launch pads. This includes Project Seed, PulsePad, WagyuSwap, and My Neighbor Alice, each of which achieved a maximum return on investment (ROI) of more than 30,000%.
Democratized launch pads distribute access to new opportunities among hundreds or thousands of potential users, each of whom has the opportunity to participate or is entitled to a guaranteed allocation, depending on the specific characteristics of each platform. Since these projects are manually vetted, they help reduce scams, money grabbing, and cheating.
But the immense growth of these platforms has started to negatively affect users, who are seeing the size of their allotments gradually decrease as the number of users increases. Many decentralized launch pads are also beginning to see their minimum entry bar rise, with the lowest level on some launch pads requiring an investment of several thousand dollars.
The launch pad industry
Today, the launch pad industry is densely packed with different platforms, many of which target projects that launch on specific blockchains or specific sectors / niches. Although there are generally a variety of platforms that provide launch pad services for each blockchain, some have grown to dominate their respective chains, absorbing most of the quality projects.
In its current form, DAO Maker currently dominates the Ethereum project landscape, having released big hitters like XCAD Network, Opulous, Orion Money, GameFi, and DeRace in recent months. BSCPad is generally considered the launch pad for Binance Smart Chain projects, thanks to recent successes like NFTLaunch, BitOrbit, WagyuSwap, and ADAPad.
Other emerging blockchains also have their own featured launch pads, including Solanium, a Solana-centric launch pad that hosted the incredibly successful projects of Project SEED, Cryowar, and DeFi Land to make money; as well as Avalaunch, which has launched a range of coveted assets in the Avalanche ecosystem.
BlueZilla, on the other hand, has launched a very distant network by developing and operating launch pads on multiple blockchains, including Cardano (ADAPad), PulseChain (PulsePad), and KuCoin Community Chain (KCCPad). This strategy seeks to democratize access to projects by giving shape to these new chains.
Launch pads are one of the main reasons why Avalanche, Solana, Terra, and many other modern blockchains have seen an explosion of Cambrian innovation in recent months, as they provide a simple route for projects to not just secure financing and spread their tokens, but also to boot. your initial user base.
Some are now big enough to be officially backed and backed by the native blockchain they support, like VelasPad, which partnered with the AI-powered Solana fork known as Velas.
Launchpads and the blockchain space
By providing a solid starting point for new projects, launch pads have become a staple service in the blockchain landscape, and the most popular launch pads can have tens of thousands of users.
While launch pads have successfully democratized access to promising investment opportunities, not all launch pads are built equal and those on the less successful end of the spectrum may find it difficult to secure high-quality projects in between. from ever-increasing competition.
In fact, there are now a large number of launch pads, but a relatively small number of promising projects. This has led to fierce competition between launch pads as each of them compete to secure the best projects for their respective communities. However, only the top launch pads have the community and track record to be picky about their projects, often leaving less established platforms with the lowest quality projects.
As we go further and further into the bull market, the quality gap will only increase, which could pose a challenge for less experienced traders and investors, who may suffer losses when entrusting their funds with the increasing number of launch pads. mediocre. .
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every trade and investment move involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Kalani moe is the director of ecosystem growth at Velas, a decentralized smart contract platform forked from Solana. A serial entrepreneur and early builder in the blockchain space, Moe previously founded Project Divi and helped turn CoinPayments into the world's leading cryptocurrency payment processor as its former creative director.
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