
IDO launchpads are important infrastructure in the Web3 ecosystem that connect project parties with early investors. Unlike early ICOs or IEOs, IDOs place more emphasis on decentralized issuance, on-chain transparency, and community participation. Projects typically conduct token sales through decentralized platforms, allowing investors to participate directly using on-chain wallets.
Entering 2024-2025, the overall sentiment in the crypto market is warming up, and funds are flowing back to early projects. At the same time, users’ demands for “fair distribution”, “anti-bot”, and “reducing large-holder monopoly” are continuously rising, prompting IDO launchpads to evolve in their mechanism design. Legion and Buildpad are representative platforms that have quickly gained attention in this context.
Legion is considered one of the most innovative IDO launchpads in the past year, with its biggest feature being the introduction of a reputation-driven allocation model. Unlike the traditional method of “stake how much, get how much quota”, Legion focuses more on users’ long-term behavioral performance on-chain and within the community.
In the Legion system, users’ historical interactions, the quality of their project participation, community contribution, and long-term activity will all affect the final IDO allocation they can receive. The goal of this mechanism is very clear: to reduce the impact of short-term speculative funds and guide users who are genuinely willing to participate in ecosystem construction to obtain more reasonable opportunities.
Based on recent performance, several projects launched by Legion have gained significant attention in the early market, allowing the platform to quickly accumulate a core user base. However, this reputation model also has certain thresholds, as new users often require a longer time to establish an effective rating system, making it more suitable for users who participate in the Web3 ecosystem for the long term.
Unlike the reputation logic of Legion, Buildpad adopts a more intuitive staking and tiered participation model. Users generally need to stake a certain amount of stablecoins or ecosystem tokens on the platform to qualify for participating in IDOs. The higher the staking scale, the larger the allocation they can often receive.
The advantage of this model lies in its clear rules and simple participation path, making it relatively low-cost for investors who wish to quickly participate in on-chain new projects. At the same time, Buildpad reduces the instability caused by frequent inflows and outflows of short-term capital to some extent by guiding users to stake.
Recently, several projects that completed their IDO on Buildpad have shown active performance in the early stages of their launch, leading to a high level of discussion about the platform in the market. However, it is important to note that this model relies heavily on the scale of funding, and users with small amounts of capital often find themselves at a disadvantage in the allocation competition.
From an overall logical perspective, Legion and Buildpad represent two different development directions of current IDO launchpads.
Legion emphasizes long-term value and community behavior, and its allocation mechanism is not solely determined by the scale of funding, but rather attempts to filter out “higher quality participants” through a reputation system. Such platforms are more suitable for users who are willing to engage deeply in Web3 projects over the long term and hope to gain returns through continuous contributions.
Buildpad is more focused on capital efficiency and execution, allowing users to quickly obtain participation qualifications through clear staking rules. This approach aligns better with the thinking logic of traditional investors, but it also means that the allocation results are more susceptible to the concentration of funds.
The two modes do not have absolute advantages or disadvantages; rather, they are suitable for different types of participants and together constitute the diversified ecology of the current IDO market.
From an overall trend perspective, IDO launchpads are developing in the following directions by 2025:
Firstly, the platform mechanisms will become more diversified, with the importance of non-financial factors such as reputation scores, task participation, and community governance continuously increasing. Secondly, the project selection criteria are becoming stricter, and the platform’s reputation itself is becoming an important factor affecting project success rates. Finally, compliance and user identity verification are being introduced by more platforms to reduce systemic risks.
However, at the same time, IDO investments still carry significant risks. The uncertainty of early projects is extremely high, and tokens may experience severe fluctuations in the secondary market, with the possibility of project failure. Therefore, any participation must be based on thorough research and risk awareness.
Overall, Legion and Buildpad represent two mainstream models of current IDO launchpads: one emphasizes long-term reputation and community value, while the other emphasizes capital commitment and efficiency. For investors, the key is not to choose the “hottest” platform but to understand whether its mechanisms align with their own capital scale, risk appetite, and participation cycle.
In 2025, IDO launchpads will still be an important component of early investment in Web3, but rational participation, diversifying risk, and conducting in-depth research on project fundamentals remain core principles that cannot be ignored.











