LaunchPads, Initial DEX Offerings, Initial CEX Offerings, and other forms of them, are seen as profitable ways to make easy "internet money" in crypto as the newly-listed coins are sold for lower prices so that they can gather some funds for their projects. Depending on the coin being offered, the popularity of the launchpad platform, and the market cycles, the return on investment varies widely. However, most of the time, launchpads reward early investors.
So far I have used lots of launchpads which are both decentralized and centralized over the last 6 years. As far as what I've observed, if a person has no experience in launchpads, starting with the launchpads, jumpstart (OKx), and Spotlights (Kucoin) of centralized exchanges might be a better idea. Also, investments in Launchpad tokens change according to your risk appetite.
A couple of months ago, we saw the rewarding launchpad of Sui on OKX and Kucoin exchanges. Also we had lots of successful launchpads on Binance such as Axie Infinity or Hook Protocol. These tokens were sold for like five cents or seven cents and millions of people wanted to get some cheap money. As a result of their launchpad investment, they were able to multiply their small funds within a month or two.
Difference between Decentralized & CEX LaunchPads
When it comes to decentralized Launchpads, they want everyone to invest in the platform if they are going to be a regular member of initial dex offerings for juicy allocations. For example, you will always see five or four tiers in which an investor can buy, around $20 - $50 worth of tokens. In the next tier it exceeds $200 or $500 because the investors lock their money for a period of time in the system.
Basically the more tokens of the launchpads you stake, the more allocations you will be given. Even though not all launchpads are profitable as DAO Maker or Binance's LaunchPad, there are always some projects that go 10X or 100X to let you make good gains. Personally, I am holding DAO maker and Seedify tokens for the launchpads. Thanks to them, I am receiving Tier 1 allocations of the tokens.
There is one more aspect to focus on: Launchpads may not guarantee your allocation. It is also possible to turn a distribution into a ruffle. In such cases, you may need both investment and a bit of luck 😅
Investing into launchpad tokens is a long-term investment. In crypto, "the long term" means a huge risk because the market cycles are harsh as hell. Crypto is not regulated and the platforms or tokens are vulnerable to being exploited anytime by a group of hackers. Thus it is a high risk / high reward investment plan that may not be suitable for everyone's investor profile.
New Chain - New LuanchPad Hunts
One of my new launchpad investment strategies is to collect cheap launchpad tokens in a new layer one project, such as Sui and SEI, because I expect them to be among the top traded coins if they are supported by the developer teams of the L1s in the bull market. Also, I have huge expectations from Solana and Aptos projects in the next cycle so although they are not hotly debated coins these days, their ecosystem will once again attract millions of dollars.
Of course, there's a huge risk when you stake your coins for a long duration and most probably the launchpads will ask you to lock them for around a year or 180 days programs and there will be a multiplication formula to incentivize you to stay for a longer time.
All in all, if you are not a big fan of becoming a launchpad investor, it might be better for you to participate in the launchpads that are organized by centralized exchanges only. On the other hand, if you enjoy launchpad programs and you believe you can make nice gains, just stick to the ones that are top tier and make sure that you are not exposed to the platform more than 5% or 10% of your crypto portfolio.
The third, and last, option is diving into the local, chain-based, launchpads within new blockchains. For example, Suipad or Cetus on SUI blockchain. it might be a good investment for pump-dump coins. IDK, maybe it is unnecessarily risky but I'm sure there will be some investors up for that, as well.
