State of Token Launchpads on Solana
New Playbook of Capital, Culture & Coordination
Crypto is turning the internet into capital markets. Whether it is JPEGs, memecoins, or any cutting-edge protocol, the space has rewarded momentum. However, beneath this, the real innovation is permissionless capital formation. The ability for anyone to create and raise capital freely, without gatekeepers.
In the last bull cycle, capital moved through Telegram chats and pitch decks.
Now?
A new trend of crypto-native launchpads is allowing builders and creators to raise capital without VCs. Just vibes!
This is bigger than ‘get listed.’ It is a redesign of the early-stage venture funnel.
Launchpads are not just fundraising tools, but they act as distribution engines, culture shapers, and token design labs.
But not all launchpads are created equal. Some are curated, others are chaotic. Some are built for public goods, others for private gains. If you are a founder or an early investor, choosing the right platform to launch a token is now the most strategic decision.
In this deep dive, I will map the current launchpads landscape, covering at least five of the most active in terms of volume. I will break down how they work, what kind of founders they are best suited for, and how token mechanics vary across them. This article explores actual teams and projects and how they could run a launchpad-powered token generation event (TGE) today.
Launchpads - Why They Matter Now?
Behind the failed fundraising concepts like Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), and Initial DEX Offerings (IDOs), the simple idea is internet should be able to coordinate capital around ideas.
However, the design of these fundraising processes was poor.
Today’s launchpads have redesigned the approach, which helps you grow from zero to something, with early contributors, creators’ fees, aligned holders, and distribution effects, along with money.
Some are curated, where projects are vetted and supported. Others are permissionless, letting anyone launch in a liquid, internet market. A few are pushing to rewire capital formation around public goods, governance, and regen economics.
All these launchpads are optimizing for different things like price discovery, decentralization, virality, speed, and UX. And each one imposes tradeoffs.
Launchpads are not just for ‘raising capital’, but are not part of the product design itself. The way you launch impacts who shows up, how they engage, and how the token moves, and what feedback loop you are building in the market.
Attention is capital. Launchpads are new funnels.
Before we dive into launchpads in detail, let’s decode the math behind most of them: The Bonding Curve.
At its core, a bonding curve is just a mathematical function that sets the token prices based on how many tokens have already been bought.
No market makers. No order books. No negotiations.
The curve is the price.
The earlier you buy, the cheaper it is. The more people pile in, the higher the price goes.
Let’s break this down.
If a new token launches with a fixed supply (say 1M units), the price starts low. Maybe a fraction of a cent.
Each new buy pushes the price slightly upwards, following a curve (linear, exponential, or custom).
When people sell, the curve works in reverse. An inverse bonding curve.
Therefore, bonding curves reward early buyers/investors. They also guarantee price discovery, without needing external liquidity or centralized coordination.
Bonding curves work beautifully in high-attention markets like memes, communities, and apps with distribution.
But there is a catch!
They don’t care who is launching. They just care who gets in first. The curve will reward early birds, even if the project has no actual product.
That’s why platforms like Pump dominate virality but often struggle with sustainability.
Bonding curves measure how many people are willing to back your idea before it’s real.
Launchpads Infrastructure
If you want to build your launchpad or embed token issuance in your product, what infrastructure exists today?
Let’s explore the infrastructure layer of launchpads. I will touch on the mechanisms, configurability, and protocol-level tools to let you design your own launch experience.
Pump.fun owns over 85% market share of the new token creation volume. Its success lies in extreme accessibility. Anyone can launch a token with zero friction. Bonding curve + built-in liquidity rails will boot up a tradable market.
The tokens on Pump.fun are priced using a fixed bonding curve. The price starts extremely low and increases with each buyer. Early users get incentivized. The curve logic replaces the need for manual liquidity providers or Automated Market Maker (AMM) setups.
Once a token hits a $69k market cap, its liquidity migrates to PumpSwap, an AMM that ended Pump’s prior dependency on Raydium.
So, what does Pump offer?
A no-code, zero-cost token creator
Instant price discovery via bonding curve
Distribution across speculators and snipers
A trustless liquidity provisioning
However, it has its tradeoffs.
Token creators miss out on customized bonding curve logic. It does not support allocations or governance. And there is a limited upside creator’s fee.
Above that, projects often suffer pump-and-dump dynamics on the platform.
Pump.fun is optimized for maximum velocity and distribution. It is great for builders who are looking to optimize attention and discoverability. If you win the meta or nail the theme, the growth kicks in fast.
But if you are building for months or years, this is likely just a testnet for your market narrative.
Raydium LaunchLab builds on Pump’s simplicity but adds more creator-centric mechanics. While it uses the same curve logic for initial token sales, it brings maturity through a deeper integration with Raydium’s AMM infrastructure, optional fee sharing, and liquidity guarantees.
Once the tokens on LaunchLab hit a predefined SOL threshold (for example, 85 SOL in JustSendIt mode), they graduate into Raydium’s AMM pool. LP tokens are burned to prevent rug pulls, and trading continues on Raydium.
Creators who opt in can earn 10% of trading fees post-migration.
The key features include:
Customizable settings like the post-migration fee share
Creator earnings via protocol fees
Liquidity burned or locked on graduation
Ties directly into the Bonk ecosystem via the BonkFun frontend.
What do you miss out on?
Raydium offers lower customization compared to Meteora but better than Pump.fun. The discovery aspect is mostly reliant on BonkFun and LaunchLab UI. The current graduation rate of a token is nearly 0.87%. Around 2000 tokens have been graduated until now.
Letsbonkfun holds 56% of the token creation on LaunchLab, with more than 230k tokens being created.
However, Raydium looks like a great step up from Pump. If you want, creator fee-sharing, post-launch liquidity management, and are not building something too complex, this is great. If your project is aligned with the Bonk ecosystem, it will be the best fit for your product.
Meteora takes a slightly different approach. It does not provide a frontend discoverability layer (or a launchpad UI); it offers tools to build one!
At its core is the Dynamic Bonding Curve (DBC) mechanism, a permissionless protocol allowing founders, DAOs, and developers to create their token issuance systems, with full control over how bonding curves behave, how fees accrue, and where liquidity ends up.
DBC supports multiple curve types (linear, exponential, sigmoid, etc), and allows builders to define:
The quote token (JLP/USDC/SOL)
Graduation conditions (like market cap, supply threshold, time-based)
Liquidity destination (Meteora DAMM v2)
Fee schedules to deter snipers (for example, high initial fees that drop over time)
Volatility-based fees (higher during spikers = snipers + more LP yield)
Until now, 7789 launchpads (account payers) have been created on Meteora DBC, with 71,282 tokens being created and over 23M in fees claimed. Over 5900 tokens migrated to DAMM v2. It has a better graduation rate of 8.3% compared to others.
BelieveApp and BagsApp stood out as top performing launchpads by token creation. BelieveApp with over $3.8B in volume and $21M fees, while BagsApp achieved $370k in volumes with $113k fees.
It offers a great infrastructure control, which needs ongoing LP ownership along with fee revenue.
This is the best infra tool to build embedded launch experiences inside consumer applications.
While it has tradeoffs like no native frontend (or discoverability layer) — a cold start problem. And it requires developers to build UI/UX and distribution.
BelieveApp, Daos.fun, Cults.fun are a few popular breakout launchpads from Meteora’s infrastructure.
Overall, Meteora is the best choice when you are building your launchpad/ecosystem, not just a token. This enables to creation of custom launchpads for niche markets, and for teams looking for long-term ownership and fee share.
This is a completely different fundraising or capital raising choice out of all that we explored so far. MetaDAO is not built on bonding curves. It represents a radical evolution of token launches.
Instead of speculators buying into pre-minted tokens, MetaDAO uses futarchy, where people stake real capital on ideas they believe in. The capital gets minted as DAO, a token, a treasury, which is all governed by market-driven decision-making.
How does it work?
Well, a founder proposes an idea plus a funding target in USDC.
If the target is met, the DAO is formed.
It is formed with:
10 million tokens, of which 1M is +10% of USDC, go into a liquidity pool
The remaining USDC and minting rights are controlled by the DAO
The token holders govern spending and future minting via prediction markets.
If the project fails, the token holders can vote to liquidate the treasury and recover USDC.
This approach to capital raising enables:
Founders’ accountability from Day 1
DAO-native governance with real budget control
Long-term alignment between token holders and contributors
While there are tradeoffs compared to the bonding curve mechanism/launchpads. This is not ideal for short-term hype or meme cycles. The community has to self-govern via predictions, unlike with vibes on other platforms.
mtnCapital - a Futarchy-governed DAO raised $5.7M+ through MetaDAO’s mechanism.
It is great for builders solving hard problems, teams wanting a DAO and treasury before shipping a product, and projects looking for high-trust, skin-in-the-game capital.
Each of these infrastructures enables a different kind of experiment. Your choice depends not just on what you are building, but who you are building with, and what kind of relationship you want with your capital.
Launchpad Applications (Frontend layer)
While token launch infrastructure defines what is possible, frontend applications shape what happens. These applications wrap protocols like Pump.fun, Meteora DBC, or Raydium into user-friendly experiences, often laying social mechanisms, discovery feeds, and distribution.
I break down some of the leading, popular frontend applications, excluding Pump.fun (a frontend by itself).
Built on top of Raydium’s LaunchLab, BonkFun is more than a frontend. It is a meme factory or incubator. It provides discovery rails for new launches, integrates with LaunchLab’s contract suite, and amplifies hype cycles through social overlays.
The direct access to Rayidum-based token launches ✅
Meme-native design where projects use Bonk IP and Bonk-affiliated creators 🫂
Leaderboard and time-sensitive boosts ⌛
It is compatible with Pump-like mental models but with a creator upside. The projects may get high visibility via the Bonk community and existing meme pipelines.
While the limitations include sticking around only with Raydium’s contract stack. As it lacks deeper launch mechanics like curve customization and governance. Lack of early traction leads to high failure of projects.
A consumer application available via Apple and Google app stores that broke out from Meteora’s DBC and created its narrative — Internet Capital Markets.
It is built entirely on Meteora’s DBC, allowing users to mint and trade ‘Belief Tokens’ around cultural, political, or social claims.
These tokens run on fully custom bonding curves, giving the app an embedded prediction plus attention market powered by its launch logic.
BelieveApp provides:
Custom bonding curves per token
Volatility-based fees and sniper protection
The performance of Believe is tied to narrative towards ‘attention’, not hard outcomes.
So, the growth of the audience depends on cultural virality and social commentary.
BelieveApp showcases the flexibility of launch infrastructure as embedded product logic. It may be an initial step in envisioning the next generation of crypto-native apps using token issuance as UX.
Some real examples like $LAUNCHCOIN (its native token) and other memecoins like WAGMI, CHAOS had trending moments. The $LAUNCHCOIN was up 900% in May 2025.
One of the most ambitious projects built on Meteora DBC, offering a full-stack “Launchpad Builder” where DAOs and creators can spin up their own internal token economies, with no code.
The migration of tokens happens when the bonding curve is filled at $90k market cap. 80% of liquidity would be migrated to Meteora, and the rest is moved to DAO’s AUM (assets under management).
The top-performing DAOs get big bonuses in buyback and burn + AUM every week. A price pool based on bonding curve fees.
So, what to expect?
Customizable DBC bonding curves per DAO or project
Shared frontend and discovery layer for all launched tokens
Treasury management, DAO roles, and voting are on the roadmap
While it is too early! Many sustainable, long-term features like governance and liquidity tools are in development. It is a more community-centric application, less focused on viral meme-first launchpads.
It stands out for enabling infrastructure composability at the frontend level. It abstracts away Meteora’s backend power and offers non-technical teams the tools to launch real token economies.
Like Daosdotfun, Timedotfun migrated from Raydium to Meteora, with custom bonding curves for each creator, trade mechanics, and award logic for loyal fans.
It is a combination of Calendly + Robinhood + Patreon.
It does not launch tokens. It turns time itself into a tradable asset. The protocol allows creators to tokenize minutes of their availability, which fans and users can buy, hold and redeem for direct access like DMs, chats, or calls.
The more in-demand the creator becomes, the more valuable their time token is, producing natural price discovery and social alignment.
Key features include:
One-on-one DMs
Group chats
Voice/video calls
Auctions or products
Timedotfun has deep product-market fit for creators, coaches, influencers, and experts. It creates natural value accrual tied to social clout and rising demand.
It has the potential to replace Telegram groups, DMs, and Calendly for specific scenarios.
As of now, it remains a permissioned application, where only selected creators can list tokens.
The liquidity of this market depends highly on fanbase size and retention.
It reimagines creator monetization through the access of tokens with upside. It created a new fan economy layer powered by bonding curves and priced by attention.
It is not just a launchpad; it is a meme distribution machine. It flips the traditional launch script by making culture the protocol.
Instead of just minting tokens, users mint identity, narrative, and community.
Cults draws from the NFT era playbook, where owning a punk, or a penguin, was not just about holding JPEGs, it was about becoming a part of the story. Cults bring a similar narrative and energy to memecoins.
When you launch on Cults, you also get a face, a personalized avatar tied to your token’s cult. Each cult is a meme-primed for X. They believe every PFP is marketing or a call to action.
Users launch tokens on Cults.fun with automatic cult mechanisms. Each token comes with custom avatars and memetic branding. Community replies, quote-tweets, and PFPs act as branding and virality rails.
The creator of this platform can earn 10% of protocol fees as ongoing rewards.
The greatest strength of this platform is the distribution-as-a-product aspect. It combines with strong identity mechanics plus visual cult cohesion.
However, the limitations may be with volumes, as it remains centered around Cult’s native token. It’s a small ecosystem, and long-term sustainability of meme culture is yet to be proven.
This launchpad platform is not for traders or serious builders/founders. It is for the meme community, culture hackers, and social designers.
As we have seen, the most successful apps in this ecosystem do not just help users launch tokens; they shape how tokens feel.
Whether it is buying someone’s time on Time.fun, betting on a belief via BelieveApp, or launching a cult-powered meme army, each application embeds tokens inside of culture, behavior, and distribution loops.
The catch here is, these apps often ride on an infrastructure layer (Meteora, Pump, Raydium) and face the classic cold start problem. Distribution!
Distribution is not guaranteed. Liquidity is not magic. Attention is not free.
The right infrastructure gives you the engine. The apps give you the skin. But what matters is strategy.
The rest applications have less <$1M in daily volumes, covering another 10-15 applications. These include, Boop.fun, GoFundMeme, Dubdub.tv,, etc.
There are AI launcpads like Virtuals and Auto.fun that are specialized for AI-themed tokens and agent deployment. Virtual functions mostly as a launchpad with most successful agents like $AIXBT, while Auto.fun focuses on utility within the $ai16z ecosystem.
Matching the Founders to Launchpads
Not all launchpads are the same. And more importantly, not all founders are playing the same game. Some need distribution, for some it’s a sustainable fee capture. Others want governance-first systems.
The right infrastructure depends on what you are building and what kind of creator you are.
Strategy 1
If you are a creator who wants to move culture and use your token as distribution, use Pump.fun or Cults.fun.
These platforms provide instant deployments, and immediate liquidity without presales or insider allocation
The design of these platforms is tailored around ‘attention.’
It would be a great fit for influencers, members and shitposters with community clout.
However, the limitations would be long-term upside and a lack of narrative reinforcement.
Strategy 2
If you are experimenting, try short-term cycles with the Telegram community or product prototype.
If you want speed to launch and minimal configuration, the best platforms would be Pump.fun and Raydium LaunchLab.
You get a bonding curve with AMM graduation
It gives access to instant community testing
Less friction in setting up. It kind of offers spin-and-go models
While on these platforms, the creator fees might be less unless you use Raydium (to enable fee share). There is no proven strategy or a case where a shorter successful cycle has graduated to longer arcs.
Strategy 3
If you are building a product. If you want token UX embedded in your application with aligned capital and maybe creator tools, then Meteora DBC is the best fit.
It has customizable bonding curves and a fee structure
Provides launchpad-as-a-service for consumer UX with mobile-native integrations
Real examples like Believe App and Daos.fun, which have successfully broken through Meteora and created their own narratives and tailored offerings
However, founders with this approach may lack native discovery or liquidity unless bootstrapped. Also, this strategy requires a developer team or a frontend partner.
Strategy 4
If you want quick traction, but you are aligned with the existing memecoin ecosystem linked to Bonk, then Raydium LaunchLab (via Bonkfun) would be the right fit.
You get integrations of the bonding curve with Raydium AMM
It offers fee-sharing postgraduation for creators
LaunchLab + BonkFun gives social distribution along with liquidity
However, you get less configurability bonding curve than from Raydium compared to Meteora.
I strongly think it would be huge plus is if you are building with or for Bonk’s ecosystem.
Strategy 5
If you are designing new primitives. If you want full control over curve design, fee mechanics, sniper deterrents, and looking to design your own frontend or indexer, then Meteora DBC is the way to go.
It offers protocol-level access to curves, graduation logic, and fee schedulers
Perfect for tooling-heavy builders or internal platforms teams
Best suited for in-app launchpads, attention markets, or LP yield innovations
However, the main problem would be distribution.
Strategy 6
If you want to launch a real project, maybe even a subDAO or organization. If your goals are treasury management, ownership alignment, and decentralized governance from day one, then MetaDAO is best fit.
Based on futarchy, where votes on values and bets on beliefs
It combines token issuance with structured USDC fundraising
Treasury, LP, and mint permissions transferred to DAO on launch
Governance via prediction markets (not just voting)
I think this strategy is best suited for builders who want a DAO with capital plus community before TGE.
Also, for projects that want a liquidation failsafe if the founders’ rug.
With this strategy, I do not see much limitation apart from having a deep understanding of governance.
Also, this is not ideal for memers or quick attention cycle-based projects.
Case Studies
On Pump, we witnessed tokens like $FARTCOIN, $GOAT, and $MOODENG, which gained significant traction.
The $FARTCOIN had sustained more than $1B market cap for weeks
$MOODENG grew a durable memetic base
$GOAT became successful in stabilizing post-volatility and withstood the community
On Meteora, we have tokens like:
Tokens like $JUP, $CLOUD and the recent viral $TRUMP were successful tokens from Meteora
$JUP stands out of all with ~2.8 billion in FDV. While Sanctum’s $CLOUD has $128 million FDV
And the $TRUMP coin peaked at $70 billion FDV in 24 hours
While on Raydium, we witnessed Let’sBONK (SZN), which hit $38M market cap.
When it comes to MetaDAO, I have a few examples.
MetaDAO Launchpad for Futarchy DAOs
A launchpad that helps projects raise capital using futarchy DAOs, solving issues like rug pulls and poor capital formation in crypto.
It did not have a token sale. Instead, they used MetaDAO infrastructure to pass a proposal that launched isISOL – a branded liquid staking token powered by SolBlaze’s Bliq platform.
The DAO staked 50 SOL, with rewards flowing into eh ISLAND<>SOL LP, growing liquidity and treasury yield over time.
Infrastructure used: MetaDAO + Bliq
Mechanism: Liquid Staking token (LST)
Outcome: ~$636/year in sustainable, compounding yield and full DAO control
This is a pureplay of non-speculative launch, using staking to generate DAO-native yield and deepen LPs without needing private rounds or a TGE. This is the best example of how treasury formation can be built into the product utility itself.
Colosseum struck a deal to buy 80 days of emission boosts from the ORE protocol. For $230k USDC, they received 11,000 ORE over time, avoiding market slippage while the protocol uses funds to buy and ‘bury’ ORE, tightening supply.
Infrastructure used: MetaDAO governance + ORE emission rails
Mechanism: Boost purchase + emissions vesting
Outcome: OTC capital raised for the protocol. Emissions redirected via the proposal
This model shows how protocols can unlock capital without dumping tokens by selling future emissions to aligned buyers under vesting and governance constraints.
If observed, each of these teams targeted different outcomes like liquidity depth, memetic speed, protocol revenue, or efficient token distribution.
But they share one commonality – none relied on VC or centralized gatekeepers.
Believe unlocked speculation around belief
Cult embedded virality in identity
IslandDAO launched a yield loop from staked assets
Colosseum raised OTC capital by offering emissions under vesting
These examples show that the launchpad is not just for minting tokens, it is for building tokenized systems where utility, distribution, and alignment flow from first principles.
Closing Thoughts
The current launchpad landscape is not just a bunch of token vending machines; it is a spectrum of distribution tools built for different outcomes.
Observing the scene, what is emerging is not a single category called ‘launchpads’, it is a new class of capital markets around native internet-native assets.
The best launchpads would not be just token launches or ‘raising capital.’ I think the definition would reform what it means to coordinate, speculate and believe.
While I have some questions that linger in my mind. Questions like:
With projects now going viral before they are useful, should virality be step one or step ten?
Platforms like MetaDAO aim for egalitarianism, Pump.fun for chaos. Can these concepts ever merge?
Is the future of token creation like a YouTube channel, continuous, iterative, and feed-based?
If every creator, product, and meme has a token, does the value accrue to the platform or the attention router? Who curates curators?
Tokens used to be endpoints. You raised money and then built something.
But the best launchpads today do not just help you launch a token.
They let you prototype a movement.
Some die in a day. Some go from a meme to a protocol.
And that’s the best every founder is making now. That distribution is not just a function of advertisements or capital. It is a functional belief.
The right launchpad just helps you mint that belief into something tradable.