Author: WOO X Research
Launchpad is a decentralized platform, typically operated by blockchain projects or decentralized exchanges (DEX), used to help emerging blockchain projects issue tokens to the public through IDO. These platforms provide fundraising channels for project parties while offering investors early opportunities to participate in quality projects.
The Launchpad introduced in this article is more focused on meme launch platforms. Unlike traditional Launchpads, these have lower token market caps, nearly 100% circulation, mostly meme tokens, low token issuance thresholds, and higher potential wealth effects.
Functions:
1. Project Fundraising: Provide financing channels for new blockchain projects by selling tokens to the community, used for project development, market promotion, etc.;
2. Token Distribution: Help project parties distribute tokens to early investors, typically launching at lower market caps to attract user participation;
3. Traffic Acquisition: Popular events or IPs are currently important ways for Launchpad platforms to obtain traffic and gain significant attention;
4. Providing Wealth Effects: With low on-chain token market caps, once gaining market recognition through FOMO purchases or future listings on top CEXs, early buyers may obtain huge profits, quickly spreading within the community;
After Pump Fun's massive success last year, the LaunchPad track has been the first choice for many development teams and even public chains, but most ultimately ended without success, with meme coin consensus gathering around Pump Fun.
However, besides Pump Fun, Solana's veteran meme coin BONK recently launched its own LaunchPad - Letsbonk.fun, with multiple meme coins under it reaching market caps over $10 million, marking a promising start.
The AI Agent LaunchPad leader Virtuals Protocol recently introduced new participation methods and activities. Regardless of its underlying token performance, the mother token $VIRTUAL doubled in price within a week, suggesting some effectiveness of the new activities.
So, although Pump Fun, LetsBonk, and Virtuals Protocol are all Launchpads, how do they differ in functionality? What tokens under these platforms should be watched? Let WOO X Research show you.
Pump Fun
Pump Fun is surely familiar, launching the meme craze in the second half of 2024. At its peak, it could earn over $7 million in a day, and even now during the meme cooldown, it maintains around $1.5 million daily, totaling over $600 million since launch - undoubtedly the crypto ecosystem's money printer.
Pump Fun's income is priced in SOL. Usually, native Solana projects avoid being seen as "cutting leeks" and stay close to the Solana official by staking earned SOL or operating nodes. However, Pump Fun does the opposite, constantly selling SOL for USDC.
Since 2025, they've sold SOL tokens worth $317 million, an astonishing amount.
This approach looks bad and, combined with previous livestream and lawsuit scandals, makes Pump Fun extremely profitable in the Solana ecosystem but not supported by the foundation.
In terms of meme coins, Pump Fun has become the preferred token issuance platform, a traffic entry website covering various themes including animals, puns, news events, AI, etc. Essentially, any concept can become a meme coin, so the platform doesn't focus on any specific feature, remaining the primary token issuance platform.
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Reference: defillama
LetsBonk
Compared to Pump Fun, LetsBonk is clearly more politically orthodox, mainly because BONK is the most representative meme coin on the Solana chain, the original meme coin with wealth effects, and a project that has been deeply rooted in Solana for over four years. Besides Toly's recent retweet, BONK has been visible in various Solana offline events. Its relationship is obviously more likable compared to Pump Fun's constant token selling.
In terms of platform mechanism, LetsBonk also appears more selfless, with 1% of transaction fees used for:
Platform operation and growth
BONKsol validators to promote DeFi growth & protect the network
BONK buyback and burn (upcoming dashboard)
Collaborating with Raydium's LaunchLab shows LetsBonk's sincere goodwill towards the Solana ecosystem.
Currently, the highest market cap token on Letsbonk is Hosico, at $38 million, inspired by a Scottish Fold cat named "Hosico". Born on August 4, 2014, this golden short-haired cat with a round face and big eyes has nearly 2 million followers on social media like Instagram, becoming a globally famous internet cat.
Other notable tokens include the eponymous Letsbonk and Grassiot.
Letsbonk was initially viewed as the official platform token. On its first day, the token reached a market cap of $30 million but subsequently declined due to numerous competing tokens, now worth only $4 million.
Grassiot gained popularity when BONK founder TOM purchased the token, later burned and repurchased it. Essentially, the token gained attention through the founder's actions. TOM later clarified he bought it in support, without insider information or being a developer, and publicly disclosed owning Hosico and LetsBonk. Grassito's market cap dropped from a peak of $13 million to about $4.3 million at the time of writing.
Virtuals Protocol
Originally established on Base, the AI Agent LaunchPad has now expanded to the Solana chain. With a simple business model, users must consume VIRTUAL when creating and trading tokens. However, with the AI boom subsiding, currently less than 10 tokens are successfully issued daily, a massive drop from the previous 100+ daily issuances.
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Reference: Dune
Recent Major Updates
Virgen Points: A crucial mechanism by Virtuals Protocol to encourage user participation, used for accessing pre-TGE token allocation, especially for "giga AI Agent launches". These points directly impact users' participation qualifications and rights on the launch platform.
AI agents launch with a fully diluted market value of 336,000 $VIRTUAL (approximately $232.58k), with all Virgens gaining equal early access through Virgen Points. Allocation is determined after a 24-hour points bidding period, with no token minting if funding goals aren't met, and full refunds of $VIRTUAL and points.
Earning Methods:
Trenchor Points: Earned by trading Sentient and Prototype Agent tokens.
$VIRTUAL Points: Earned by holding $VIRTUAL tokens.
Yap for Points: Earned by creating content related to Virtuals Protocol (like X posts). The April 23, 2025 X post encourages users to "Yap", with higher impact content potentially receiving more points.
$VADER Stakers: Earned by staking $VADER tokens
How to Participate?
Staking Key Points:
Use Virgen Points to commit, potentially receiving up to 0.5% of total token supply.
Final allocation depends on your committed points relative to total committed points.
Over-commitment increases chances of maximum allocation.
If Genesis Launch succeeds, only points used for allocation will be burned, with remaining points refunded.
Invest $VIRTUAL tokens:
Invest up to 566 $VIRTUAL to ensure maximum allocation.
If participation exceeds expectations, allocation will be diluted, and excess $VIRTUAL will be refunded.
Token Claiming:
After successful Genesis Launch, go to the Agent page to claim purchased tokens.
If the launch fails, all points and $VIRTUAL will be fully refunded.
In summary, Virtuals Protocol is creating a LaunchPad with a smaller scope and higher loyalty, somewhat similar to the recent token allocation activity launched by Binance Wallet, essentially hoping users will participate more in the ecosystem. If one continues to be optimistic about Virtual's system, there are three ways to participate:
Directly buy $VIRTUAL tokens to go long
Directly buy $VADER tokens to go long
Participate in the activity
The first two options are straightforward, and both $VIRTUAL & $VADER have seen surprising price increases recently, becoming the biggest beneficiaries of the activity. To participate in the activity, one must first accumulate points, which can be done by holding $VIRTUAL tokens in the wallet. If concerned about potential $VIRTUAL price drops, one can short the same number of $VIRTUAL tokens on a centralized exchange. The benefit is ensuring participation in the activity without being consumed by potential price declines, and the activity is designed not to lose money, only potentially yielding less than expected. The drawback is that additional capital is needed for shorting, which will significantly reduce overall capital utilization.
Conclusion
Overall, Pump Fun, LetsBonk, and Virtuals Protocol each have their advantages and concerns: Pump Fun consolidates traffic entry through aggressive selling and high-profit models, but is also questioned due to frequent "cashing out" and negative events; LetsBonk seeks to build goodwill in the ecosystem through deep community engagement and low-fee profit sharing, but the attention split between platform and secondary tokens raises questions about long-term participation; Virtuals Protocol's point mechanism and AI Agent layout for new tracks are innovative, but have yet to demonstrate stable issuance energy, and whether user enthusiasm can be sustained remains to be seen.
Looking ahead, the next wave of LaunchPad tracks hinges on "value realization" and "community resilience": Can platforms design mechanisms that balance short-term popularity and long-term ecosystem building? Can project parties continuously provide real utility, rather than relying solely on grand narratives? When hot money recedes, which model will prove more sustainable will be a key market test. For researchers and participants, beyond tracking platform traffic and token price fluctuations, one should deeply consider the core risks and future upgrade potential of each mechanism to find the truly worthwhile long-term bet amidst the hundred schools of thought.
