Launchpad is a decentralized platform, typically operated by blockchain projects or decentralized exchanges (DEX), to help emerging blockchain projects issue tokens to the public through IDO. These platforms provide fundraising channels for project parties and offer investors early opportunities to participate in quality projects. The Launchpad introduced in this article is more focused on meme launch platforms, which differ from traditional Launchpads in having lower token market value, nearly 100% circulation, mostly meme tokens, low token issuance thresholds, and higher potential wealth effects.
Functions:
- Project Fundraising: Provide financing channels for new blockchain projects by selling tokens to the community to fund project development, marketing, etc.;
- Token Distribution: Help project parties distribute tokens to early investors, typically launching at a lower market value to attract user participation;
- Traffic Acquisition: Popular events or IPs are important ways for Launchpad platforms to obtain traffic and gain significant attention;
- Provide Wealth Effect: With low on-chain token market value, once gaining market recognition through FOMO purchases or future listing on top CEXs, early buyers may obtain huge profits, quickly spreading within the community;
After Pump Fun's huge success last year, the Launchpad track has been the first choice for many development teams and even public chain startups, but most ultimately returned without achievement, with meme coin consensus gathering around Pump Fun.
Besides Pump Fun, Solana's veteran meme coin BONK recently launched its own Launchpad - Letsbonk.fun, with multiple meme coins under its umbrella reaching a maximum market value of over $10 million, marking a promising start.
The AI Agent Launchpad leader Virtuals Protocol recently launched new participation methods and activities. Regardless of its underlying token performance, its mother token $VIRTUAL doubled in price within a week, suggesting some effectiveness of the new activities.
So how do Pump Fun, LetsBonk, and Virtuals Protocol differ in functionality, and which tokens under these platforms should be watched? Let WOO X Research show you.
Pump Fun
Pump Fun is well-known for starting the meme craze in the second half of 2024, earning over $7 million in peak days and maintaining around $1.5 million daily even during meme cooling, totaling over $600 million - undoubtedly the crypto's money printer.
Pump Fun's income is priced in SOL. Native Solana projects typically stake earned SOL or operate nodes to avoid "cutting leeks" reputation and stay close to Solana's official stance. However, Pump Fun does the opposite, continuously selling SOL for USDC.
Since 2025, they've sold SOL tokens worth $317 million, an astonishing amount.
This approach looks poor and, combined with previous livestream and lawsuit scandals, makes Pump Fun highly profitable in the Solana ecosystem but not supported by the foundation.
As a token launch platform, Pump Fun has become the preferred entry point, covering diverse themes including animals, puns, news events, AI - basically any concept can become a meme coin, so its tokens lack specific characteristics.
LetsBonk
Compared to Pump Fun, LetsBonk appears more politically orthodox, primarily because BONK is Solana's most representative meme coin, the original wealth-effect meme coin, deeply rooted in Solana for over four years. Beyond recent Toly retweets, BONK has been visible in various Solana offline events, making it more likable than Pump Fun's constant token selling.
LetsBonk's platform mechanism is more altruistic, taking 1% of transaction fees for:
- Platform operations and growth
- BONKsol validators to promote DeFi and protect the network
- BONK buyback and burn (upcoming)
Collaborating with Raydium's LaunchLab shows LetsBonk's sincerity towards the Solana ecosystem.
Currently, LetsBonk's highest market cap token is Hosico, valued at $38 million, inspired by a Scottish Fold cat named "Hosico" born in 2014, famous on social media with nearly 2 million followers.
Other notable tokens include the eponymous Letsbonk and Grassiot.
Letsbonk initially represented the platform's official token, reaching a maximum market cap of $30 million on launch day but declining to $4 million due to token proliferation.
Grassiot gained attention through BONK founder TOM's purchase, destruction, and repurchase. TOM later clarified his support was not insider information, also disclosing ownership of Hosico and LetsBonk. Grassito's market cap dropped from $13 million to $4.3 million.
Virtuals Protocol
Originally a Base-based AI Agent Launchpad, now expanded to Solana. Its business model is simple: users must consume VIRTUAL to create and trade tokens. However, with AI hype subsiding, only fewer than 10 tokens are launched daily, a significant drop from previous 100+ daily launches.
Recent major updates include the Virgen Points system, encouraging user participation and providing pre-TGE token allocation access, particularly for "giga AI Agent launches".
AI agents launch with a fully diluted market value of 336,000 $VIRTUAL (about $232.58k), with Virgens gaining equal early access through Virgen Points, determined after a 24-hour point bidding period.
Point earning methods:
- Trenchor Points: Trading Sentient and Prototype Agent tokens
- $VIRTUAL Points: Holding $VIRTUAL tokens
- Yap for Points: Creating Virtuals Protocol-related content
- $VADER Stakers: Staking $VADER tokens
Participation details:
- Staking key points:
- Use Virgen Points to commit, potentially receiving up to 0.5% of total token supply
- Final allocation depends on committed points' proportion
- Over-commitment increases maximum allocation chances
- Only allocation-used points are burned in successful Genesis Launch
- Invest up to 566 $VIRTUAL to ensure maximum allocation.
- If participation exceeds expectations, allocation will be diluted, and excess $VIRTUAL will be refunded.
3. 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 and go long
- Directly buy $VADER tokens and go long
- Participate in the
h3>
