Opinion by: Tim Hafner, founder and CEO of OpenServ
Launchpads had been launched to offer Web3 initiatives entry to early traders. As they function as we speak, nevertheless, 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 shouldn’t be slowing down. Questions stay, nevertheless, concerning the long-term sustainability and accountability of launchpads.
Initiatives with no substance are securing funding, in the end leading to failure, reflecting a deeper drawback within the business. Launchpads have grow to be hole funnels that fund initiatives 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 initiatives elevate funds and improve model consciousness whereas permitting international traders to get in early on promising applied sciences. This strategy helps fill a major hole by making it simpler for groups to entry funds and neighborhood assist.
Because the business has matured, this mannequin has revealed its limitations. Many launchpads stay centered on elevating funds somewhat than reaching long-term success. On this sense, they’re caught previously, performing like decentralized Shark Tanks somewhat than engines of innovation. As an alternative of main the way in which for technical innovation, launchpads have eliminated it as a class altogether.
The issue with ‘launch no matter’
Many launchpads delight 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 one of the best initiatives stand out and develop.
Some argue that innovation shouldn’t be policed, and anybody ought to be capable of fundraise. However with out a deal with real, subtle tech or clear guardrails for token design, launchpads grow to be a cut-throat area the place nobody wins. Traders are bombarded with half-baked pitches and superficial hype cycles whereas builders attempt to elevate capital with out significant assist.
Associated: Grayscale provides AI launchpads, Solana DeFi apps to Q1 2025 high tokens
This strategy labored for earlier iterations of Web3 initiatives, which prioritized token distribution over long-term development. Nevertheless, this mannequin now not advantages this market. The times of fast wins and low-effort launches aren’t any extra. With elevated regulatory scrutiny, the subsequent era of launchpads should transfer past concept and into motion, solely launching initiatives 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 initiatives stall earlier than they even start correctly.
Constructing an actual product requires loads of work. Conventional launchpads have narrowly centered on serving to initiatives elevate capital. However capital doesn’t assist remedy 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 deal with their merchandise,’ not on patching collectively the scaffolding round them as they go.
Initiatives want multi-agent assist
Past higher tooling, launchpads have to evolve to allow builders to construct genuinely highly effective functions that remedy actual person issues. As an alternative of merely deploying token contracts, fashionable platforms should present the infrastructure for creating functions with actual utility, person adoption and income era.
As 2025 has grow to be the 12 months of AI brokers, initiatives will capitalize by introducing a strong 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 precious 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 manner. They’re uniquely positioned to drive technical innovation, however we gained’t have higher initiatives with out higher instruments.
The subsequent era 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 symbolize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.