Opinion by: Tim Hafner, founder and CEO of OpenServ
Launchpads had been launched to present Web3 tasks entry to early traders. As they function immediately, nonetheless, they too typically end in money grabs over long-term success. This has resulted in a flood of half-formed merchandise hitting the market with out actual assist for builders.
Virtuals Protocol has facilitated over 17,000 AI agent token launches as of February 2025, indicating that infrastructure for token launches will not be slowing down. Questions stay, nonetheless, relating to the long-term sustainability and accountability of launchpads.
Initiatives with no substance are securing funding, finally leading to failure, reflecting a deeper drawback within the trade. Launchpads have change into hole funnels that fund tasks with out requiring an actual product or technical basis.
What launchpads had been meant to be
Designed because the assembly level for builders and believers, launchpads assist new tasks increase funds and enhance model consciousness whereas permitting world traders to get in early on promising applied sciences. This method helps fill a major hole by making it simpler for groups to entry funds and neighborhood assist.
Because the trade has matured, this mannequin has revealed its limitations. Many launchpads stay targeted on elevating funds moderately than reaching long-term success. On this sense, they’re caught up to now, appearing like decentralized Shark Tanks moderately than engines of innovation. As an alternative of main the best way for technical innovation, launchpads have eliminated it as a class altogether.
The issue with ‘launch no matter’
Many launchpads satisfaction themselves on being chain-agnostic, positioning themselves as impartial arenas for protocols to lift funds. This neutrality additionally creates a scarcity of focus and requirements, turning themselves into free-for-alls that fail to assist the very best tasks stand out and develop.
Some argue that innovation shouldn’t be policed, and anybody ought to be capable to fundraise. However with no give attention to real, refined tech or clear guardrails for token design, launchpads change into a cut-throat area the place nobody wins. Buyers are bombarded with half-baked pitches and superficial hype cycles whereas builders attempt to increase capital with out significant assist.
Associated: Grayscale provides AI launchpads, Solana DeFi apps to Q1 2025 high tokens
This method labored for earlier iterations of Web3 tasks, which prioritized token distribution over long-term progress. Nevertheless, this mannequin not advantages this market. The times of fast wins and low-effort launches are not any extra. With elevated regulatory scrutiny, the subsequent technology of launchpads should transfer past principle and into motion, solely launching tasks with actual merchandise.
Builders want higher infrastructure
Most builders juggle three to 4 disconnected instruments to ship a challenge. There are quite a few elements to contemplate, together with constructing backends, sustaining prices, server internet hosting and safety programs. It’s no shock that promising tasks stall earlier than they even start correctly.
Constructing an actual product requires a variety of work. Conventional launchpads have narrowly targeted on serving to tasks increase capital. However capital doesn’t assist clear up operational bottlenecks. Builders, particularly these with out deep pockets or pedigrees, want launchpads that assist them end-to-end to simplify the whole journey.
The ethos of launchpads must be: ‘giving builders the instruments they should give attention to their merchandise,’ not on patching collectively the scaffolding round them as they go.
Initiatives want multi-agent assist
Past higher tooling, launchpads must evolve to allow builders to construct genuinely highly effective functions that clear up actual consumer issues. As an alternative of merely deploying token contracts, trendy platforms should present the infrastructure for creating functions with actual utility, consumer adoption and income technology.
As 2025 has change into the yr of AI brokers, tasks will capitalize by introducing a sturdy platform for constructing functions first, then constructing a launchpad round these functions. This creates a cycle the place profitable functions drive platform adoption, attracting extra builders and creating community results of priceless functions, builders and customers fixing actual issues at scale.
Constructing higher, not simply elevating extra
If launchpads wish to be a part of the answer, they have to get out of their very own approach. They’re uniquely positioned to drive technical innovation, however we gained’t have higher tasks with out higher instruments.
The following technology of launchpads should transfer previous token distribution towards serving to builders construct higher. This implies offering end-to-end assist by way of constructing and rising merchandise, and providing clear incentives and guardrails to make sure everybody’s pursuits are aligned.
Opinion by: Tim Hafner, founder and CEO of OpenServ.
This text is for common data functions and isn’t supposed to be and shouldn’t be taken as authorized or funding recommendation. The views, ideas, and opinions expressed listed below are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially mirror or characterize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
