In the rush to get a piece of the Pump.fun action, new Launchpads experience a "cultural undercurrent."

Since Pumpfun became a phenomenon, the impression of new market players on Launchpad has evolved from ICO/IDO platforms like Coinlist to various "Meme-like" launchpads. This evolution has ranged from the initial various ".fun" copycats to the public chain Launchpad wars, and further to the birth of the SocialFi/AI + Launchpad paradigm. Nowadays, the concept of ICM "Internet Capital Markets" promoted by Solana has become popular, and the fate of Silicon Valley tech companies and VCs has heightened the competitiveness of this "battle."

Even though the Memecoin market has not seen significant growth in value, new projects on Launchpads have been emerging one after another. This is because, with the transformation of the "asset issuance" model, Launchpads are no longer just carrying "Meme culture" but are also expanding into a wider market beyond the "ICO era."

Meme Market Index, Source: SoSoValue

From "Value Investing" to "Price Investing"

For blockchain projects, beyond the traditional fundraising model and structures like IDO and ICO, the currently hottest fundraising model should be Launchpad. More and more projects are getting accustomed to this model, which is more "lightweight" and suitable for blockchain projects compared to the traditional model. Looking at the monthly public sale data of IDOs/ICOs from CryptoRank, the market share of this fundraising model has gradually decreased.

The left chart shows the number and total amount of IDOs/ICOs from 2009 to date, and the right chart shows the fundraising data for Crypto from 2009 to date

However, taking PumpFun as an example, from 2024 to now, a total of 100,000 tokens have "graduated," with the fundraising threshold set at around 80 SOL (the average price of SOL from March of last year to May of this year was $177.87). Just based on the fundraising in PumpFun's "internal round," at least approximately $140 million has been raised, accounting for 6.3% of the total fundraising amount of $22.5 billion from last year to now, including private seed rounds.

Although comparing on-chain data does not provide a complete picture, fundraising and investment amounts on centralized exchanges cannot be directly compared, the trend of "ICM" is gradually emerging, with more and more institutional capital willing to seek investment opportunities on Launchpads.

The left chart shows Pumpfun's total graduated token count from last year to date, and the right chart displays the total funding allocation from March last year to present. Source: DefiLlama, CryptoRank

What Game Are New Launchpads Playing?

VC Endorsement + Anti-Rug Mechanism — Cooking.City

Cooking City is a Launchpad backed by Jump Crypto, CMT Digital, Bitscale Capital, Mirana Ventures, EVG, collectively investing $7 million in the Launchpad. Cooking.City aims to reshape the token issuance mechanism, proposing a sustainable, incentive-driven, community-centric on-chain issuance model.

The new model proposed by Cooking.City focuses on value redistribution, where most of the platform fees are reallocated to developers and users, confidence pool mechanism requiring token issuers to pre-commit a certain amount of funds in the smart contract, and a social-based value distribution system introducing a referral commission system with fee redistribution within the ecosystem, with most fees allocated to community referrals and transaction rewards, some returned to the token issuer, and the rest invested in the platform's long-term development.

During the beta testing phase, Cooking City users who link their wallets will receive an invitation code and a "profit and loss card" for a wallet address, as well as the new version of Galxe's "Yap" task, which gives users a sensory experience similar to the "Old School" cold start mode of the previous project cycle.

Amid the frequent occurrence of tokens "instantly to zero" in the cryptocurrency market, this protocol, through a "funds staking + market validation" dual-drive approach, attempts to rebuild the foundational trust between project teams and investors.

Specifically, when developers create a token, they must inject at least 10 SOL as "belief funds" and set a token price floor. This fund will be locked immediately until the project passes market validation.

If the token achieves the platform's set "graduation criteria" such as trading volume and active holder addresses within 5 days, all staked SOL will be injected into a dynamic liquidity pool (DLMM) at the preset price, creating a rigid protection net on a decentralized exchange. If the token fails to meet the "graduation criteria" within 5 days, the staked funds will be fully refunded to the developer, but the token permanently loses its price protection eligibility.

At the same time, to ensure the effective operation of the mechanism, the protocol introduces multiple layers of insurance. If the liquidity pool funds are exhausted within 5 days, the protection net is automatically lifted; if there are remaining funds, they are returned to the developer. Developers are subject to a mandatory 30-day token vesting period, enforced by the Streamflow protocol to prevent dumping. The advantage of this mechanism is to encourage developers to commit funds, incentivizing them to diligently drive project development, while providing traders with a certain degree of price floor protection to reduce the risk of "floor collapse." By using "graduation" and "protection activation" to determine whether a token is reliable, it reduces the risk of rug pulls.

However, many platforms using similar mechanisms to protect prices have disappeared for two main reasons: they either fail to sustainably attract attention to the token or do not find a suitable underserved market. This type of mechanism is not as attractive to "legitimate" project teams as ecosystems like Virtual or Believe, and for "whales" and hot concepts, the barrier to entry may be too high. The key to this project may lie in maintaining post-lockup price sustainability after the forced vesting ends.

Long's Belief-based Issuance Mechanism

The Long platform has introduced a new primitive called "Dynamic Auction" to strongly align incentives among project teams, early supporters, and long-term holders. Unlike traditional buy-in mechanisms, Long, through a higher initial price and an automated auction system, avoids early buyers hoarding at low prices, shaping a healthier market foundation and identifying truly committed users.

In particular, contrary to traditional platforms seeking "low-price grab," Long requires tokens to launch at an astonishing premium — the initial pricing can be up to 30-4000 times that of regular platforms. This design acts as an "unpermissioned funding channel," naturally filtering out short-term speculators and only attracting users with high awareness and strong beliefs.

Additionally, complemented by an hourly slow-paced Dutch auction, ensuring that every participant has ample time to assess the project's value. The Dutch auction mechanism is a type of auction where the price decreases from high to low, in contrast to the traditional "highest bidder wins" English auction. Its core logic is to use price reduction to stimulate demand until the market's true acceptance price is found. On the Long platform, each round of token sales starts at a high price, with the price gradually decreasing through an automated Dutch auction mechanism until market demand and price reach equilibrium. Therefore, the first real transaction price may fall anywhere between the high initial price and the predefined floor price.

Furthermore, to address the rampant issue of bots sniping in the industry, the Long platform has deployed a sophisticated triple defense system. This includes an inverted punishment mechanism, meaning the earlier one buys, the higher the price, compressing arbitrage profits; time-based price locks, where each trading window refreshes the quote only on the first transaction in each time period, and after each update, rebalances prices through liquidity restructuring to inflate MEV attack costs 10 times; value protection wall, where each sale sets a global minimum floor price, overlaying a certain protective liquidity buffer to ensure that participants can always exit at a level not lower than the average issuance price; if the sale falls short of expectations, the system will automatically refund.

At the same time, the platform "slices the token supply into multi-round auction releases, with each round's quantity strictly limited," and the mechanism of "large buy orders automatically triggering the current price increase" is designed to dismantle whale monopolies; and through mandating project teams to set transparent on-chain unlock schedules, with reserved tokens not exceeding 10%, etc., to align the long-term interests of the project team.

In essence, Long is a new platform based on "belief issuance," using auctions instead of sales, transparency instead of gamesmanship, and mechanism alignment for long-term benefits. Here, those who truly identify with the project will enter fairly, enjoying a more stable market entry point and a more long-term return space.

A New Paradigm of Social Identity Assetization — Ego

Ego is a social asset issuance platform in the Solana ecosystem. The platform adheres to the principle of "one address, one person, one token," where each Ego Token represents a unique individual profile and can only be linked to one social account (e.g., Twitter). The initial distribution is completed through a public and fair presale mechanism to eliminate front-running, monopolies, and pre-mining.

Each Ego Token presale lasts for 4 hours, and users can participate in purchasing the token share corresponding to that profile by depositing SOL. The presale opens up 25% of the total token supply, and all participants purchase at the same price, without any front-running advantages or slippage exploitation. The presale sets a minimum subscription threshold of 60 SOL. If this amount is not reached, the presale automatically fails, and all funds are refunded.

Upon successful presale, the system will use the raised SOL to inject into the Raydium liquidity pool along with 25% of the token supply, creating the first trading market. The total token allocation includes 25% for presale participants, 25% for initial Raydium liquidity, and 50% reserved for the respective social account owner and future incentive distribution.

Anyone can initiate the Ego token presale for a specific X account. After a successful presale, the account owner can formally claim the token by verifying their identity through binding the account or signing in. After successful verification, the profile owner will receive 50% of the total token allocation as a reserved share, but it needs to be gradually unlocked through completing subsequent tasks and achievements to incentivize continued participation in the platform ecosystem. Additionally, after the token is listed, the profile owner will also receive 50% of the trading fee split to bind its long-term value.

Simultaneously, to prevent rug pulls by project teams or account owners, before the profile owner claims the earned tokens, they must undergo a public 7-day notice period, transparent and auditable, ensuring the community is informed in advance. If any unreasonable behavior is discovered by the community during this period, timely intervention can prevent sudden selling pressure.

This concept has appeared several times before, where individuals with social media influence have "launched" their own coins. Typically, these launchers would prohibit others from initiating a presale for a particular X account. However, this platform allows anyone to initiate a "token presale" with the account owner holding a 50% share. This mechanism actually creates a very unbalanced chip-holding structure, making it difficult for participants to be protected.

Mev+Launchpad — Gavel Unique "Tax" Launch Mode

Gavel is an on-chain token issuance and liquidity bootstrapping platform that aims to bring the token issuance process entirely on-chain to avoid high fees from centralized exchanges. It also achieves on-chain price discovery to prevent users from harmful MEV attacks.

Currently, many projects face a dilemma when issuing tokens: on one hand, listing on centralized exchanges often means paying up to 10% of the total token supply in listing and liquidity fees, with a non-transparent process. On the other hand, on-chain issuance is low-cost but susceptible to front-runners and MEV bots, leading to value loss.

Gavel provides a fair, transparent, and efficient on-chain fundraising and token distribution mechanism, coupled with secure and controllable liquidity management, achieving full auditability and transparency throughout the token's lifecycle. Currently, many tokens on Solana are issued using a Bonding Curve, with the initial price being very low and increasing as the buy volume rises. The initial price is usually artificially set and does not represent the token's true market value.

This results in a race among bots—whoever can buy the fastest can acquire the tokens at a very low price and then sell them at a higher price to regular users. Analogously, this is like Taylor Swift concert tickets initially selling for $200 but being scalped for $1000 after they are bought out. The negative impact of sniping includes a reduction in the actual funds raised by the project (due to bot arbitrage) and a worsened token price for regular users.

Most AMMs are unable to prevent MEV attacks, but Gavel utilizes an anti-sandwich attack AMM mechanism that retains the traditional AMM's bilateral liquidity while preventing sandwich trades. Gavel's core mechanism includes an initial public fundraising, raising funds through various methods and providing initial token liquidity to ensure fundraising price aligns with the AMM's listing price to eliminate arbitrage.

After the fundraising, the remaining tokens and a portion of the raised SOL will be injected into an impermanent loss-resistant AMM to achieve price transparency and uniformity, preventing frontrunning and sandwich attacks. In addition, Gavel adopts impermanent loss design, and as trading activity increases, the AMM will gradually withdraw, automatically removing liquidity positions and burning tokens to avoid permanent asset loss caused by traditional locking mechanisms.

The only token currently launched on this platform is IBRL. IBRL is the demonstration token of Gavel purely showcasing the protocol's operational processes. The total token supply is currently 1 billion, with 700 million distributed through a 24-hour public fundraising event. Participants deposited SOL within a fixed time period and ultimately received a token allocation based on their proportional contribution to the total amount—for example, contributing 1% of the total amount would result in receiving 70 million IBRL x 1% = 7 million IBRL.

This method is fair and free from frontrunning, with no investment cap in place. However, users will not know the final price when depositing funds. The AMM will start based on the fundraising price, facilitating future withdrawals. After the fundraising, the remaining 300 million IBRL and a portion of the raised SOL (3/7 of the total) will be injected into Gavel's AMM. For instance, if the total fundraising amount is 700 SOL, then 300 million IBRL and 300 SOL from the fundraising will be injected into the AMM, while the remaining 400 SOL will be reserved for future burning.

The liquidity will start to be gradually withdrawn after 7 days, with a 0.01% (1bp) withdrawal every 2000 blocks (Slot), converting SOL to IBRL and burning the tokens. Simultaneously, the remaining SOL inventory will utilize 0.01% funds every 1000 blocks to purchase and burn IBRL. The entire process is executed entirely on-chain automatically, without the need for any permissions, driven by Crank.

Gavel is a full-process on-chain platform built for the Solana project, providing fair fundraising, manageable liquidity, and transparent price discovery. It eliminates frontrunning and sandwich trading risks, avoids high fees from centralized exchanges, and achieves automated token issuance and liquidity management. While Gavel has received support from many Solana communities, for most projects, providing liquidity as a market maker requires higher "technical costs" and "capital costs."

The Crowded Race: Who Will Solve the Liquidity Problem?

From a data perspective, although the current DEX trading volume is four times that of the same period last year and ten times that of two years ago, the total value locked (TVL) has not proportionally increased. Compared to the same period last year, it has only grown by 20% and by 250% compared to two years ago. One possible reason is the market's shift towards "trade mainstream," where token lifecycles are becoming shorter, and there are more "small fish," leading to seemingly inflated trading volumes. Additionally, the slowing growth of on-chain transactions may be related to the market gradually moving towards "mainstream trading" and compliance, with limited "killer apps/narratives" on-chain to drive external growth. Regardless of the reasons, the current market faces a lack of incremental growth.

Crypto DEX Protocol TVL vs DEX Trading Volume Chart, Source: Defillama

With the increasing market scarcity, there has been a rising number of Launchpads appearing. On the Solana chain, currently active are only Believe, funded by AllianceDAO, and BONK, early supported by the Solana OG community, along with Virtuals on the Base chain. Most Launchpads only survive for 1 month.

In addition to the meme frenzy it brought to Solana and the entire crypto market, along with the market's nostalgia for its "OG" nature, its product itself, echoing the concept of "Less is more" by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is at its core. As a Launchpad, the only required functionality is token issuance. The anchoring effect, coupled with path dependence, and finally the dopamine-driven feedback loop formed by constant "DEGEN" behavior, have made Pumpfun thrive in the launcher.

From a data standpoint, the percentage of Pumpfun's "graduate tokens" compared to the total supply has dropped from initially being commonly above 20% to a rapid decline after former U.S. President Trump released his Memecoin, resulting in an increasing number of failed meme coins and a significant decrease in the graduation rate, reaching as low as 0.57% in March. This means that out of every 1000 Pumpfun tokens, only 5 and a half are able to graduate. In comparison, the undergraduate admission rate at one of the world's top universities, Harvard University, is around 5% in 2024, making the competition to "graduate" from the inner circle even greater than getting into Harvard in a sense.

The left chart shows Pumpfun's graduation rate trend, and the right chart shows the ratio of Pumpfun's inner circle to graduate tokens, Source: DUNE

The competition to make money on Pumpfun is equally fierce, with only 1.76% of addresses in the market earning over $1000 on Pumpfun this month. As the market experiences "aesthetic fatigue" with more and more junk Memecoins, and fewer people being able to make money.

In addition, the project team continuously selling transaction fees has earned 700 million USD from SOL, and there have even been recent reports that Pumpfun will raise 1 billion USD at a valuation of 4 billion USD. Whether in the Solana ecosystem or among retail investors in the market, there is a universal lament, condemning the project for "draining the market's liquidity."

Well-known KOL 0xTodd tweeted on X expressing his dislike for pump fun, and jokingly commented on the upcoming fundraising by Pumpfun, saying, "In the past year, Pump has emptied the pockets of on-chain Degens, emptied the pockets of Binance, Coinbase, and the Solana Foundation. Looking around, the only pockets left are those of one-step institutions and traditional institutions."

However, there are also many different opinions in the market. Another well-known KOL Crypto Vagabond believes that the SOLANA Maxi's support of PumpFun is a behavior of ingratitude. He recounted how Pumpfun has "rescued" Solana with specific reasoning and added, "If you are truly a SOLANA Maxi, you'd better hope that Pump succeeds. From a value investing perspective, its PE RATIO is probably only around 5, truly embodying the value-investment ethos. From an ecosystem perspective, Pump is in fact the largest Consumer App on the entire web. If such a thing cannot break into the top 50 in market cap, you'd better quickly liquidate and short SOL."

Whether PumpFun's fundraising is successful or not, the "token issuance wave" it has initiated has given the market a new understanding of asset issuance forms. This is also part of the ideological changes brought by the current AI Vibe Coding's "creative entrepreneurship trend," meme culture, Degen culture, and other cultural shifts.

When ideas can become assets, when attention becomes liquidity, the rules of money circulation quietly undergo a transformation.