Original author: Chloe, ChainCatcher

From the end of last year to this year, the ICO market, which had been dormant for years, has seen a resurgence. Driven by the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, the Trump administration's crypto-friendly policies, and a new bull market, public token sales platforms have once again become a focus for project developers, retail investors, and others.

In this new cycle, CoinList, once the leading ICO platform, has gradually receded, replaced by the rapid rise of emerging platforms such as Buildingpad, Echo, and LEGION. Buildingpad, for example, has already helped four projects complete public offerings and list them on Binance's spot market within just one year of its launch, with participants receiving returns of up to 10 times their original value. Buildingpad has completely replaced Coinlist's dominance in the market.

In this article, ChainCatcher conducts a detailed analysis of the development background and reasons for the rise of Buidlpad, and interviews several deep players in public offering platforms to interpret from multiple perspectives why it was Buidlpad?

Filling the gap left by CoinList

@PandaZeng1, a long-time user of multiple Launchpad platforms, has systematically observed ICO/IDO/IEO platforms. He pointed out that the gameplay on all platforms is actually very similar, and the key lies in the performance of the first few projects. In other words, if the first or second project ends in failure, it will have a further impact on the platform, causing users to be reluctant to participate.

He cites another major issue for CoinList's decline as poor user experience: For Asian users, queues and the time difference to the US meant they had to stay up late, and getting a spot wasn't guaranteed. CoinList later introduced a Karma points system (earning points by trading or swapping on the platform), but this was no longer enough to reverse user churn.

In contrast, the success of new platforms like Echo and Buildpad stems from the outstanding performance of their previous projects, which established their reputations. For example, Echo's Sonar, the first Plasma release, built user expectations. He emphasized that the crypto market is rife with expectations. When rational, they are valuation-driven; when irrational, they are dream-driven. Ultimately, the key is the "performance-to-dream ratio."

@0xhahahaha shares similar insights regarding the factors behind CoinList's decline: a vicious cycle characterized by the failure of its wealth-creation effect. Having participated in five or six CoinList pre-sales, she attributes CoinList's decline to a decline in the quality of projects launched on the platform. Some less popular projects, unable to list on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, are only listed on smaller exchanges. Liquidity is weak, with only selling orders and no buying activity. Sales conditions are stringent, requiring a year-long lockup period, and even an immediate TGE may not yield profits.

For projects that conducted public offerings on CoinList during the 2023-2024 period, most tokens saw a sharp drop in price after listing, with a general drop of 70%-98%, such as ARCH (-98%), FLIP (-73%), ZKL (-93%), NIBI (-78%), etc., and the FDV was mostly below US$100 million.

The success of Filecoin in 2017 established a "high return" image for CoinList. Just as investors were expecting CoinList to continue to replicate its success, the overall market cycle, regulatory changes and evolution of user needs were difficult to sustain.

Today, unresolved issues such as unfriendly platform experience, poor project quality, and low returns, which are what players value most, have amplified community dissatisfaction and led to user loss. This has led to the emergence of platforms such as Echo, LEGION, MetaDAO, and Buildpad, which have filled the market gap left by CoinList's decline.

King bomb performance

Taking the Buildpad platform as an example, Buildpad helped four major projects, Solayer, Sahara AI, Lombard Finance, and Falcon Finance, complete public offerings and list on Binance spot trading. Looking at Buildpad's performance, the first project, Solayer, launched its public offering at a valuation of $350 million, with a per-token cost of $0.35 and a high of $3.43, generating a nearly 9.77x return on investment for early investors. Sahara AI raised funds at a valuation of $600 million, with a per-token cost of $0.06 and a high of $0.15, achieving a 2.68x return and an 8.8x oversubscription, with total subscriptions of $75 million.

@0xhahahaha got to know Buidlpad through Falcon Finance. Like most other traders, she adopted the strategy of "going wherever there is an opportunity to make money." She believes that Buidlpad's success can be attributed to its strict project selection. All projects are eventually successfully listed on major exchanges (such as Binance Spot). This stable wealth-creating effect has attracted users from CoinList to Buidlpad.

Regarding the rise of Buidlpad, @PandaZeng1 summarized several key factors. First, the valuations of the projects selected by Buidlpad are relatively high, and the projects launched on it are basically grand slams, including Binance and Upbit. It does a good job in user value acquisition. The projects generally have a 2-10 times return space, and compared with Echo, it is not as strict, making it easier for retail investors to get started.

Buidlpad has its own unique narrative rhythm and screening criteria for project selection, quality control, and distribution mechanisms. In addition to conducting comprehensive due diligence and research on each project to assess the feasibility and execution of its business model, Buidlpad also employs anti-Sybil attack technology. Through KYC verification, compliance checks, and security measures, Buidlpad prevents the wholesale participation of fake accounts and studios, ensuring fair token distribution.

As of September 2025, the platform has secured over $320 million in commitments across its first four campaigns, attracting over 30,000 verified real users. The latest project, Momentum Finance, launched its public sale on the platform in October, aiming to raise $4.5 million.

Additionally, Buildpad introduced the Squad system, which builds upon the existing staking model by allowing participants to earn additional incentives through content creation. This system not only helps projects cultivate their communities in their early stages, but also encourages participants to invest more than just capital.

When talking about the fact that all the projects issued by Buildingpad have been listed on Binance spot trading, becoming the best springboard for projects to directly enter Binance and other major exchanges, we have to mention the background of the founder Erick Zhang.

Binance’s obvious background

According to Erick Zhang's LinkedIn information and updates, he holds a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Macau. He has disclosed very little about his early career experience. His earliest work experience was as a vice president of Citibank from 2013 to 2015. He then joined Binance as an executive a few months after its establishment, demonstrating his sharp professional judgment.

During his tenure at Binance, he served as the head of Binance Research and Binance Launchpad, respectively. He gained extensive experience in project research and screening, and participated in or led the development of the coin listing system. Under his leadership, Binance Launchpad successfully helped over 20 projects complete their ICOs, raising over $100 million. These projects include many current industry giants such as Polygon and Axie Infinity. The wealth-creating effect of Launchpad's tokens also made Binance Launchpad a benchmark product in the industry. He subsequently became the new CEO of Binance's CoinMarketCap, transitioning from a vertical business unit to a fully responsible independent business unit.

After accumulating extensive experience in data analysis, team management, and industry resources, Erick Zhang left in December 2022 to establish Nomad Capital. A few months later, Binance Labs announced an investment in the crypto venture fund Nomad Capital, continuing its close relationship with Binance. At the end of last year, Erick launched Buildingpad.

It is worth noting that of the four projects launched on Building Pad so far, three have received investment from Nomad Capital. After these project tokens are listed on the Binance spot market, Binance Labs, as Nomad Capital's main LP, will also benefit significantly.

It's easy to see that Buidlpad's close relationship with the Binance ecosystem is one of the most critical factors in its current success. Factors like the market dividend period left by CoinList's decline and its unique project screening mechanism also paved the way for Buidlpad.

With Buildpad's main competitor, Echo, being acquired by Coinbase a few days ago, token fundraising platforms are becoming a new battleground for pricing power in the primary market. The decline of CoinList and the rise of Buildpad and Echo essentially reflect the changes in the ICO structure. As the short-term hype effect of the platform gradually cools down, public token sales are bridging the gap between user needs and platform mechanisms.

On the one hand, it serves as an important channel for projects to acquire early users and initial liquidity. On the other hand, it consolidates the platform's position as the preferred place for investors to make money. Even if the market enters a long-term downturn, such investment opportunities remain quite attractive.