The whole world held 37 public token sales in the second quarter of 2026, raising $58 million between them. In the first quarter there were 105 sales raising $390 million, and May alone produced 13, the fewest in any month since December 2020. Choosing a launchpad in that market is not a question of which one has the biggest logo. It is a question of which one publishes anything checkable about itself, and three of the four below do.
How big is the launchpad market in 2026?
Small, and shrinking fast. The figures below come from CryptoRank and describe public sales across IDO, IEO and ICO formats worldwide, not the output of any single platform.
| Period | Public sales | Raised |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2024 | not published | $375M |
| Q2 2025 | not published | $135M |
| Q1 2026 | 105 | $390M |
| May 2026 | 13 | not published |
| Q2 2026 | 37 | $58M |
Two consequences follow for anyone planning a raise. Competition for attention among launching projects is a fraction of what it was, which is good. And the platforms are competing for a much smaller pool of projects, which means their terms are more negotiable than their pages suggest.
What do the major launchpads publish about themselves?
Every figure in this table is taken from the platform’s own site, read on 4 September 2026. Where a platform publishes nothing, the cell says so rather than borrowing a number from a third-party roundup.
| Platform | Raised | Sales | Audience | Sale model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CoinList | $1.2B+ | 85+ completed raises | 12M+ verified investors | Vetted token sales alongside pre-IPO equity and funds; restricted by jurisdiction |
| Fjord Foundry | $1B+ | not published | 100k+ total participants, $1.5B+ traded | Four models: liquidity bootstrapping pool, fixed price, tiered, and overflow marked as coming soon |
| Polkastarter | not published | not published | 49,559 accounts holding POLS | IDO with allocation by POLS Power, earned through staking with a seven-day lockup or providing liquidity |
| DAO Maker | not published | not published | not published | Launchpad alongside airdrops, farms, vaults and staking; no metrics on the site |
The disclosure gap is the first thing to notice. CoinList publishes a raise count, a total and an investor count. Fjord publishes participants and volume but not how many sales produced them. Polkastarter publishes token-holder counts, which describe its own token rather than its launch record. DAO Maker publishes none of it.
How much do projects actually raise on each?
The order of magnitude differs enormously, and both platforms show it openly on their own pages. CoinList features Solana at $1.76 million in March 2020, Ondo at $10 million in May 2022 and Aztec at $4.5 million in December 2025. Polkastarter’s recent launches on its homepage raised $50,000 for AI Voice Agents, $100,000 each for WELF, DeSci Agents and Casper AI, and $150,000 for SUI Agents.
That is a difference of roughly thirty to a hundred times between platforms sold under the same word. A team budgeting for a launch should size its plan against the platform it can realistically access, not against the headline total the platform has accumulated since 2021. Averaged across the whole market, the 37 sales of Q2 2026 raised $1.57 million each, and that average is pulled up by a handful of large ones.
How do the sale models differ in practice?
A fixed price sale sets the token price in advance. It is predictable for the team and rewards whoever transacts fastest, which in practice means bots. A liquidity bootstrapping pool starts high and falls until buyers appear, so the market sets the price and sniping is unprofitable, at the cost of a price nobody can promise in advance. A tiered sale allocates by commitment level. Fjord offers the first three and lists overflow as coming.
Polkastarter’s IDO model works differently again: allocation depends on POLS Power, which participants accumulate by staking the platform’s own token for at least seven days or by providing liquidity. That means the audience is not the general public but holders of that token, which is a smaller and more specific group than a participant count implies.
What the published numbers will not tell you
Fees are not published by any of the four. Neither are acceptance rates, so the count of completed raises says nothing about how many projects applied. Cumulative totals stretch back years and mix a market that no longer exists with the current one, which is why a platform can show a billion raised while its recent launches clear six figures.
Nor does any of them publish what happens after the sale. That gap matters more than the raise itself, because a launchpad delivers buyers on one day and a token has to survive the following year without them.
There is a practical way to read all of this before signing anything. Ask each platform for three numbers that none of them publish: how many sales it completed in the last twelve months, what share of applicants it accepted, and the median amount raised in those sales rather than the total. A platform that has run four sales this year and one that has run forty look identical on a cumulative counter, and they are not the same product.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which crypto launchpad raises the most?
By published cumulative totals, CoinList at $1.2 billion or more across 85+ completed raises, with Fjord Foundry stating $1 billion or more. Both figures cover several years and are not comparable to what a project raises today. Recent individual launches on Polkastarter cleared $50,000 to $150,000, which is the more useful benchmark for a first sale.
How many token sales happen now?
Thirty-seven worldwide in the second quarter of 2026, raising $58 million, against 105 sales and $390 million in the first quarter. May 2026 produced 13 sales, the fewest since December 2020. Any launch plan built on the volume of 2021 is planning for a market that is not there.
What does a launchpad charge?
None of the four publishes fees, so any figure you find comes from a third party rather than the platform. Ask for the fee structure in writing along with the acceptance rate and the number of sales completed in the last twelve months, since cumulative totals stretching back to 2021 describe a different market.
Which sale model is better for a small raise?
A liquidity bootstrapping pool if you cannot predict demand, because the price falls until buyers appear and sniping bots gain nothing from being first. A fixed price sale if you need certainty and have enough demand to fill it. Tiered and staking-gated models reward the platform’s existing token holders, which suits projects wanting that specific audience.
Does a launchpad replace marketing?
No, and this is where we have a stake, so weigh it accordingly. A launchpad supplies buyers on sale day from its own audience. It does not supply the awareness that makes people want the token, and it stops the moment the sale closes. The platforms themselves publish nothing about what happens to projects afterwards.
Planning the launch around the sale
For what a launch costs and where the budget goes, see our guide to token marketing and the breakdown of splitting a launch budget across channels. For how few projects are actually in this market with you, see how many token launches can buy marketing.