A while back I saw a post on X of a new launchpad that had just concluded an ICO of over $20M.
I stopped to explore the platform and had to think about memecoins launchpads like Pumpfun and more recently, LetsBonk, then I realized that launchpads may just be a product market that could grow into something disruptive in the world of financing new businesses.
It also occurred to me that they could become instrumental to helping decentralized exchanges displace centralized markets in user usage and volumes because the most reasonable implementation is that launchpad ICOs autonomously go from raise to launch(dex listing) instantaneously.
That said, when looking at why decentralized launchpads matter, it is not out of line to think about the possibility of these products becoming a replacement for how traditional companies raise capital.
I've seen some launchpads that advertise their services as “unruggable” due to how most high performing launchpads, currently, are filled with scams. Additionally, I've seen a couple pitch the idea of being an alternative to traditional IPOs for companies looking to raise.
Certainly, this would mostly be something to consider for small startups as the ecosystem is young and is unlikely to be utilized by larger companies. I mean, even some big crypto native companies went the IPO route when they could have simply tokenized their ownership.
Of course, this is probably because they seek to build with the backing of a specific investor class and possibly don't want the transparency that comes with crypto.
But whether that is the case or it's because token-based companies are harder to manage and scale, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that despite this trend by the few, the business world is inevitably coming on-chain and to stay on point, decentralized launchpads will become critical infrastructures for this future.
A decentralized launchpad reduces the cost of raising, brings about programmability, transparency and accountability is baked in by default, open access (which is a plus for capital exposure, although a negative for the banks and investment institutions that have practically controlled the world) and so much more.
So you see, eventually, this will be a prominent contender, not because it will be favorable to the world of traditional IPO beneficiaries, but because it will be favorable to literally everyone else.
Think about it. We have crypto today because we wanted to solve a problem that to TradFi was a feature they capitalized on.
Now that they've seen that the masses are turning to this technology because it works and saves them from that system that had enslaved them, TradFi is migrating.
The same should be expected of everything else in mainstream finance. In an age of AI, we can expect lots of companies with products that need funding to launch. These companies are going to seek ways to raise capital to fund their operations and expand.
Most won't be able to do it the traditional way, so the default alternative will be digital and decentralized launchpads. Of course, much of what we have today as launchpads will have to be significantly improved.
We will have systems where companies raise and list the same day. Meaning that trading a new startup will become almost instant, provided the ICO sells out. Much of everything will be automated and investors will, beforehand, understand how their invested capital will flow and how the initial market valuation could play out, with initial pricing literally set by market demand from initial investors.
I think decentralized launchpads are products that will become a big part of how builders can come into our industry and launch products that scale without needing intermediaries that could attempt to exploit it.
