Four Popular Launchpads Comparing IPOs: Frequent Oversubscriptions, Over 70% of Projects Still Report Positive Returns

By Nancy, PANews

A new wave of TGEs is accelerating, accompanied by the rapid rise of various innovative LaunchPad platforms. With their unique mechanisms and diverse gameplay, these platforms offer investors a wide range of ways to participate, significantly invigorating the IPO ecosystem and becoming a new hotspot for retail investors to capitalize on. As the IPO craze continues to heat up, high-value fundraising cases are becoming increasingly common, and participants are reaping impressive returns, many times, or even dozens of times, their returns.

In this article, PANews will review the new issuance data and project performance of four popular new LaunchPad platforms (Buidlpad, Legion, MetaDAO, and Metaplex Genesis) for players' reference (Note: Since echo has not yet disclosed detailed data to the public, it is not included in the scope of this statistics).

Overall, these platforms are generally characterized by high popularity, high first-day returns, and strong short-term volatility. In terms of participation scale, market capital and user sentiment remain highly active. Projects on the four major platforms are generally oversubscribed, with some projects even setting records of dozens of times oversubscription. Individual projects on certain platforms have exceeded hundreds of thousands of participants. In terms of returns, new projects have shown impressive short-term returns, with average returns on TGEs of approximately 4.5 times. Building and MetaDAO have performed particularly well, with average first-day gains exceeding 500%, and some star projects even recording four-digit gains. Over the longer term, there has been no significant capital outflow. The average return of all new projects since launch is approximately 190.8%, with over 70% of projects maintaining positive returns and approximately 30% still exceeding double the returns.

Buidlpad

Buidlpad will be launched in December 2024 and will be available to KYC-compliant users in non-restricted regions. Its founder is Erick Zhang, Managing Partner of Nomad Capital, who was previously the Director of Binance Research and responsible for the Binance Lanuchpad platform.

To date, Buildingpad has launched new IPOs for four projects. Statistics show that these projects have been highly sought after by the market, with over 100,000 participants in each. This market enthusiasm has directly driven the scale of subscriptions, with an average oversubscription ratio of approximately 14.1 times. Falcon Finance, in particular, achieved an oversubscription ratio of 28.2 times, setting a record in the history of the Buildingpad platform.

Looking at the TGE's daily returns, participants saw an average return of approximately 563.3%, demonstrating impressive overall returns. Falcon Finance, in particular, achieved a whopping 1557.1% return, far exceeding other projects. Other projects, such as Solayer, Lombard, and Sahara AI, also saw impressive short-term returns.

Looking at the long-term trend, these projects have an average return of 286.7% to date, primarily driven by the high returns of Falcon Finance, which had a shorter TGE cycle. With the exception of Falcon Finance, the long-term returns of other projects are significantly lower than the TGE returns, but most still maintain positive returns.

Overall, Buildpad's new projects are generally very popular and have obvious wealth effects in the short term, but long-term returns depend more on the project's own development and the impact of market cycles.

It's worth noting that Buildpad recently launched a Pre-TGE HODL staking campaign, with the first project being Momentum. This campaign aims to encourage users to earn high returns by providing liquidity, while also increasing eligibility and priority for IPOs on the Buildpad platform, which in turn has driven TVL growth for these projects.

Legion ✖️ Kraken

In September this year, the crypto exchange Kraken announced a partnership with the ICO platform Legion to conduct MiCA-compliant token sales on its newly launched Kraken Launch platform.

Legion has raised $7 million in two rounds of funding from investors including VanEck, Coinbase Ventures, Kraken, Delphi Digital, and Alliance. The platform primarily assesses user qualifications through a "Legion Score" system that includes social influence, on-chain activity, and developer activity.

YieldBasis is the first project jointly launched by Legion and Kraken. Over 67,000 applicants applied for the offering, but only 4,187 were selected, representing approximately 7% of the total applicants. This demonstrates the intense competition for the new offering. YieldBasis's subscription volume exceeded $195 million, with an oversubscription of 98 times, demonstrating the market's strong enthusiasm and recognition for the project and setting a record for the most oversubscribed token offering on the Legion platform to date.

In terms of returns, the TGE's first-day average return was approximately 322.2%, a remarkable overall return. The total return to date remains at 243.4%. This performance is attributed to the project's recent launch, and the market's enthusiasm has supported its strong performance in the secondary market.

MetaDAO

MetaDAO, a Solana-based launchpad platform, has recently gained popularity. Last year, the platform secured $2.2 million in funding led by Paradigm. To date, MetaDAO has raised approximately $9.88 million.

It is worth noting that the MetaDAO community has issued a proposal to "sell up to 2 million META at market price or premium", including Proph3t selling up to 2 million META at market price or premium on behalf of MetaDAO. These tokens will be newly minted tokens.

MetaDAO has launched multiple rounds of IPOs to date. Statistics show that these projects have generally garnered market attention, though participation levels vary significantly. Umbra saw the highest number of participants, reaching 10,500, while Omnipair and mtnCapital had 321 and 1,931 participants, respectively. This data demonstrates that MetaDAO's user reach and community mobilization capabilities have significantly increased with its latest projects, and its market reach is gradually expanding.

Judging by subscription size and oversubscription, the platform's popularity continues to rise. The average oversubscription ratio for these projects is approximately 12 times, with Umbra's oversubscription reaching a staggering 20.6 times, far exceeding other projects. This suggests that the brand value accumulated by MetaDAO's early projects is being unleashed, significantly increasing the financial appeal of new IPOs.

In terms of performance, the average return on the TGE was approximately 525.3%, significantly higher than Umbra's exceptionally high return of 1172.3%. The strong growth potential of new projects on the platform significantly increased MetaDAO's market attention and discussion.

However, over a longer period, project prices have generally experienced some degree of correction after the hype has faded. The average return since launch is approximately 365.4%, which, while somewhat lower than the TGE, still maintains a high level of returns overall. In particular, Omnipair's return to date has reached 902.7%, significantly pushing up the overall average.

Next, MetaDAO has already or is about to launch new IPO activities for multiple projects including Avici, Loyal, ZKLSOL and Paystream.

Metaplex Genesis

Metaplex is Solana's decentralized NFT infrastructure. In 2022, the platform completed a $46 million strategic funding round from investors including Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, Solana Ventures, and Samsung Next. In July of this year, Metaplex announced the launch of Genesis, an on-chain token issuance protocol.

Metaplex Genesis has conducted multiple rounds of IPOs, attracting widespread market attention. In terms of fundraising speed, most projects achieved their fundraising targets within seconds to minutes. For example, Portals and Goated completed subscriptions in just 11 and 13 seconds, respectively, while DeFiTuna completed subscriptions in just 4 minutes, demonstrating a high level of market participation.

Compared to other launchpads, Metaplex Genesis's projects are relatively modest in size, with most being in the millions of dollars. This reflects the platform's current focus on small- to medium-sized IPOs.

In terms of performance, the TGE's daily return averaged 188.9%, primarily driven by Portals' high return of 531.1%. This not only generated substantial returns for investors but also significantly increased the platform's visibility. Over a longer period, returns have shown significant divergence, averaging approximately 270.6%. Collector Crypt and Exotic Markets achieved solid returns of 270.6% and 90.8%, respectively, while Portals and Goated experienced negative returns. Overall, the short-term market appeal of Metaplex Genesis's new projects has strengthened its influence and community appeal.