Opinion: Tim Hafner, Founder and CEO of OpenServ
LaunchPad was introduced to Web3 projects to provide access to early investors. But as they are active today, they too often end up grabbing cash over long-term success. This has led to a half-formed product collision with the market without genuine support for the builder.
Virtuals Protocol has been driving the launch of over 17,000 AI agent tokens as of February 2025, indicating that the infrastructure for token launches has not slowed down. However, questions remain regarding the long-term sustainability and accountability of Launchpad.
Material-free projects secure funding, ultimately causing failure and reflect deeper issues in the industry. Launchpad has become a hollow funnel that funds projects without the need for actual products or technical foundations.
What was the launchpad meant?
Designed as a meeting point for builders and followers, LaunchPads will help global investors quickly enter promising technology while raising new projects and raising brand awareness. This approach helps bridge the big gap by making teams easy access to funding and community support.
As the industry matured, the model revealed its limitations. Many Launchpads continue to focus on fundraising rather than achieving long-term success. In this sense, they are stuck in the past and behave like tanks of distributed sharks rather than engines of innovation. Instead of leading the way to innovation, LaunchPad removed it as a category entirely.
“Start everything” problem
Many Launchpads take pride in their reliance on the chain, positioning themselves as a neutral arena for protocols to raise funds. This neutrality also creates a lack of focus and standards, transforming yourself at will, and is unable to help the best projects to stand out and grow.
Some argue that innovation should not be policed, while others argue that anyone should be able to provide funding. But without focusing on authentic, sophisticated techniques or clear guardrails in token design, the launchpad becomes a cutthroat arena where no one can win. Investors are attacked with a half-baked pitch and superficial hype cycle, and builders try to raise capital without meaningful support.
Related: Grayscale adds AI LaunchPads, Solana Defi Apps to Q1 2025 Top Token
This approach worked in previous iterations of Web3 projects that prioritized token distribution over long-term growth. However, this model no longer benefits this market. There is no more time for quick victory and low-efford launches. With increased regulatory scrutiny, next-generation launchpads must move beyond theory to action, launching only projects that contain actual products.
Developers need better infrastructure
Most builders handle 3-4 disconnected tools to ship your project. There are many factors to consider, such as building a backend, maintaining costs, server hosting, and security systems. It’s no surprise that promising projects stall before they start properly.
Building a real product requires a lot of work. Traditional launchpads have focused narrowly on helping projects raise capital. However, capital does not help to resolve operational bottlenecks. Builders, especially those without deep pockets or pedigrees, need a launchpad that supports end-to-end to simplify the entire journey.
The spirit of LaunchPads is: “Give builders the tools they need to focus on their products” is not about patching the scaffolding around them.
Projects require multi-agent support
Beyond the better tools, Launchpad needs to evolve to allow developers to build truly powerful applications that solve real users’ problems. Instead of simply deploying token agreements, modern platforms should provide infrastructure for creating applications with real utilities, user recruitment, and revenue generation.
With 2025 becoming the year of AI agents, the project will be capitalized by first introducing a robust platform for building applications, and then building a LaunchPad around those applications. This creates a cycle in which successful applications will drive platform adoption, attract more developers, and create network effects for valuable applications, builders and users.
Not only will you grow more, but you will build better
If Launchpads wants to be part of the solution, they need to get out of their own way. They are built on their own to promote technological innovation, but there are no better projects without better tools.
The next generation of launchpads need to move past the distribution of tokens to help builders improve. This means providing end-to-end support through product building and grown products, providing clear incentives and guardrails so that everyone’s interests match.
Opinion: Tim Hafner, Founder and CEO of OpenServ.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not intended to be considered legal or investment advice, and should not be done. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or express Cointregraph’s views and opinions.