Our experts Crypto-Upvotes tell us how blockchain startups plan to raise funding. And also which Launchpads are trustworthy and what new projects will soon be fundraising.

Launchpads or startup platforms for crypto projects allow startups to raise initial funding for development. And investors can choose an attractive instrument for investing their funds.

Fundraisers are mostly held in Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO) formats – initial exchange offerings. And also Initial DEX Offering (IDO) – crowdfunding on decentralized platforms.

With these methods, it’s not the project creators who are looking for investors. Launchpad selects promising startups and promotes them. Startup platforms carefully check the project and its creators before launching a token sale – a token sale. Often after fundraising is completed, the exchange opens trading in this cryptocurrency.

The IEO and IDO have several advantages over the outdated fundraising model, ICO (Initial Coin Offering), analogous to an IPO in the traditional market. In launchpads, many more people can get early access to assets. And it’s easier for developers to promote a project and list tokens.

Despite the general downturn in the cryptocurrency industry, new projects continue to emerge and attract funding. In this article, we’ll talk about some of the platforms that are raising funds for startups.

Binance Launchpad

Binance Launchpad is one of the most well-known, easy to use and convenient platforms. To work with it, you need to pass a basic identity verification.

Before launching the tokensale, the Binance team conducts a rigorous vetting of the project and publishes a report. It takes startups at a relatively mature stage of development, with a strong and committed team.

This Binance incubator has launched well-known crypto projects such as Stepn, Axie Infinity, BitTorrent, SafePal, metaverse The SandBox, soccer clubs Lazio Fan Token and FC Porto Fan Token.

A total of 64 projects were launched on the site, raising a total of $ 109.7 million. The last of them was STEPN, which completed fundraising in March of this year. Binance Launchpad has not announced another IEO at this time.

Polkastarter

Polkastarter is a DEX platform developed on the Polkadot blockchain. It is also compatible with Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana and other networks. Launchpad allows startups to raise funds by selling tokens or NFTs in a decentralized environment. The platform has launched 108 projects and raised a total of $48.5 million in funds for them.

This summer, the platform held fundraisers for 3 projects: Metaverse Planet Mojo sold $364k worth of NFT, and blockchain games WOMBAT and DEFY raised $600k and $200k respectively.

There are plans to have a token sale of a game project from developers Gameloft, Blizzard and Ubisoft. Their game metaverse CryptoCitizen plans to raise $650k.

Duckstarter

Duckstarter is an IDO blockchain startup and fundraising platform managed by the DuckDAO community. The platform launches in early 2021. It adheres to KYC principles and accepts USDC stablecoins.

A total of 66 projects have been launched on the platform, raising $3.47 million. The most recently completed tokenseals were fundraisers for gaming startups Bot Planet for $23.7k. As well as Sugar Kingdom for $100k in March of this year.

The IDO of the GEMS project will begin in early October. Its name is made up of the initial letters of the words GameFi, ESport, Metaverse and Social Fi. Project developers are positioning it as an ecosystem GameFi. Which allows eSports gamers to learn and immerse themselves in different Metaverse and GameFi worlds.

BSCPad

BSCPad was launched in March 2021. It hosted IDOs of such projects as Revomon, GameZone, Qmall.exchange, PureFi and many others.
The platform uses a token distribution system of 6 levels for users. It is based on the number of coins they contributed: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and blue diamond. In order to participate in tokenseals, users must pass KYC. As well as to deposit a certain amount of BSCPad platform’s native tokens for stacking.

The platform has conducted more than 100 fundraising rounds. Currently there are plans to launch a fundraiser for Taunt Battleworld. It’s an NFT fighting game simulator with the ability to earn money from developers at Amazon. The description of the project says that the game is set in a post-apocalyptic world. In which the gods have turned Earth into their own personal playground called Battleworld

DAO Maker

DAO Maker conducts token sales and sales of NFT crypto projects on its DAO Pad platform. This platform supports Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and other blockchains. Initial token offerings are in SHO (Strong Holder Offering) format. In it, each user gets a level corresponding to their funds. The more funds are in the wallet, the higher the chances of getting new tokens.

The platform has raised funds for a large number of popular projects, such as Infinity Pad, My Neighbor Alice and Seascape Network.

The SHO of the DeRace NFT project is currently being finalized. It’s a Metaverse in which players breed horses to race, have races, complete missions and earn rewards. According to the developers, blockchain technology provides transparent race results.

DAO Maker plans to tokenize the Muon Network project. This is a supercomputer in the form of a decentralized cloud computing network. It will be able to run any application and software and connect to all publicly available blockchains.

Another project launching on the platform soon will be Engines of Fury. This is a fighting game with rich 3D graphics and single-player and multiplayer modes.

GameFi

GameFi is a launchpad for blockchain game projects. It hosts fundraisers in the format of Initial Game Offering (IGO) or Initial Game Offering. Its only difference from IDO is that tokensales are conducted by gaming startups. In addition to initial token offerings, Launchpad conducts Initial NFT Offering (INO).

The platform features two pools for fundraising: the IGO pool, which requires tokenization. And also Community pool, which does not involve stacking. GameFi complies with KYC requirements, and users need to be verified to participate in IGO and INO.

More than 60 projects have been launched on the platform, including X-Metaverse, GameStation, Metawars, and many others. Currently there is an initial NFT offering from the DVISION WORLD project. This is a Metaverse where users can create and sell their own NFTs.

Tokensales for three more game projects have also been announced on GameFi. This is a platform project for developing and controlling characters in the Codyfight universe. As well as fighting games Evermoon and Engine of Fury (the same project that will hold a tokensale on Maker DAO). Start dates for these IGO have not yet been determined.

Poolz

Poolz is a decentralized launchpad that supports multiple blockchains. More than 90 IDOs have been held on this platform. The biggest recent fundraisers were for the NFT spaceship game Space Sip ($1 million) and the RPG Kryptomon ($450,000).

Users need to own at least 250 POOLZ tokens ($345) to participate in tokenseals. Top 100 native coin owners get priority access to IDO.

There are 9 crypto projects scheduled to IDO on the platform in the near future. These include a token sale to raise $500k from Moverse, a Web3 fitness project from move-to-earn. Also IDO for $250k from MeMusic, a service for earning audio content producers. In addition, Launchpad will launch tokensales for several gaming projects, the cryptocurrency Tofycoin. As well as the decentralized television platform Script Network.

TrustPad

TrustPad is a decentralized launchpad. It gives priority access to the most promising projects to TPAD native token holders. TrustPad supports most of leading blockchains. Verification of users is not required for all IDOs held on the platform, but only for part of them.

There have been 116 projects token seals held on this platform. They raised a total of $21.6 million. Among them were fundraisers such startups as QANplatform, BitHotel and Blocktopia.

TrustPad will hold several tokenseals in the near future. Among them is Animalia. It’s an online NFT game with collectibles on the theme of cryptomems. And also Metaverse Lifetise, where users can plan and build their lives. From owning a home, starting a business and getting married, to retirement.

The site also plans to raise funds to develop the Mizar trading platform with a wide range of tools. Here, traders can choose different strategies to allocate their capital. Upcoming is the IDO of the game project Medieval Empires. This is a complex multiplayer online strategy game. And the action of which unfolds in the modern territory of Turkey in late 13th century.

Red Kite

Red Kite is a launchpad that has raised more than $9.3 million for 70 cryptoprojects. Tokensales are open to holders of the PKF platform’s native cryptocurrency. Just like GameFi, IDOs on this platform take place in two pools. One is available to everyone. The other is only available to members of the Red Kite community.

MetaBeat, an NFT music platform, was the last to hold fundraisers on this platform. As well as the game universe of farmers Monsterra Community and the project category move-to-earn PULMx.

In the near future, the platform will host the IDO of the blockchain game The Unfettered. It is an upcoming action role-playing video game. It is about a mysterious and warlike woman, chosen by Gods, who fights subterranean monsters.

Blockchain entertainment is not only fun, but also profitable. What options does play-to-earn open, and what are the prospects for the development of industry GameFi ?

GameFi are blockchain projects that allow profits for gaming experience: users earn profits for participating in game. All player items and rights become their property: characters, land, artifacts, clothing, and more.

Project developers choose the cryptocurrency for payments within the project. However, more often than not, each platform creates its own token. Some projects may require a small investment to start gaming activity, but mostly you just have to play.

There are other options for earning money at GameFi. NFT items can be sold. The price of game items will be higher the more popular a game is. You can also rent your virtual property. Or participate in tournaments or bet on the results of competitions. In some projects, you can put your earned coins in stacking.

Basic earning rules and how GameFi works

The main principle of earning in this industry is Play-to-Earn. Players are paid for what they play, which is either hours spent in the app or specific useful in-game actions. All schemes come down to a developer paying users to use their app. In this case, for the use of a project game. Depending on mechanics of these games, there may be slightly different ways of investing in such projects.

Our Crypto-Upvotes experts gave Axie Infinity as an example. In which to “multiply NFT characters” players need to spend in-game currency SLP. If player numbers continue to increase, it might be enough to buy such a token, in the hope that increased demand will drive up prices.

More critical investors can take part in gameplay. Then their earnings will come from the sale of game currency and newly obtained “characters”. There are many such games, but their principles are similar.

A recent trend on STEPN showed that projects actually create very different ‘something-to-Earn’ mechanics: run, jump, play, breathe and even have sex. But each project is unique in some way, and you have to study its history and perspective individually.

In some projects it is enough to buy control tokens. And somewhere the game will involve the investor in internal processes. For ordinary players everything is simple – they exchange their time for the developers’ money. One only needs to assess the risks if entering the game requires an initial investment to buy a starter set of tokens.

GameFi principles are not new, although the association of projects with blockchain has renewed interest in a whole industry. All principles of generating some profit existed before decentralization of games. In most cases, if a player gets something for free. Then money in this transaction is a player himself – his time, personal data, behavioral information, his attention, etc. All of this can be sold to analysts, advertisers, researchers, etc.

How to choose gaming projects to make a profit

First of all, it is better to pay attention to the major established projects with a large audience. For example: Axie Infinity, Alien Worlds,  CryptoBlades and many others. The tokens of these projects have the greatest liquidity, which will reduce risks from investing in them.

Another strategy could be to buy blockchain service tokens. In which most of the GameFi-projects are located. In addition to Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, it is possible to buy more specific ones: WAX, EOS, KardiaChain, ThunderCore.

Our experts say that it is very dangerous to follow new projects without personal experience. Many of them are created for purposes of scams or financial pyramid scheme principles. Others may close due to bad business processes and external manipulation.

Our Crypto-Upvotes experts named promising projects where there is a strong gamer community with high involvement. This allows brands to integrate into gaming. Coins from game studios and native tokens from the top five most popular games are also worth considering.