Launchpad in Action: From Pump.fun to Gate Fun - An Ecosystem Revolution

What is Launchpad? How does it redefine the “barrier to coin issuance”?

In the traditional crypto market, issuing tokens required team technical skills, smart contract deployment, DEX liquidity injection, and other complex processes. However, the emergence of Launchpad has made this as simple as publishing content.

The core mission of Launchpad is to lower the barriers to token issuance and participation, allowing more ideas, communities, and narratives to enter the market at a low cost. Its appearance has essentially reshaped the “listing logic” of cryptocurrencies: from “capital-driven” to “community-initiated”; from “institutional incubation” to “social viral spread”. In the past, coin issuance required developers and liquidity providers; now, an idea with meme potential, cultural significance, and heat can spark a tradable token.

Pump.fun: An On-Chain “Viral Factory” for Fair Launch

Source: https://pump.fun/create

Pump.fun is the most iconic Meme Launchpad in the Solana ecosystem, fully realizing the vision of “anyone can issue coins”. After the platform launched, tens of thousands of tokens were created and listed within minutes, reducing the barrier to coin issuance to nearly zero.

Core Logic

Pump.fun’s design philosophy is “Fair Launch” - no pre-mining, no private sale, no team allocation. The initial liquidity and price of tokens are entirely driven by community spontaneous buying.

Token Issuance Process Overview

1. Connect Wallet: Users connect to the Solana network using a Phantom wallet.
2. Create Token: Upload image, fill in name and description.
3. Inject Liquidity: The platform automatically establishes an initial pool on Raydium.
4. Community Trading Starts: Tokens are instantly tradable, and if trading volume is high, they will appear on Pump.fun’s Trending list.

Why can it become a “viral factory” for Memes?

• Extreme Simplification: Anyone can issue coins within a minute.
• Complete Transparency: All operations are verifiable on-chain, with no project team manipulation.
• Strong Propagation Mechanism: Ranking + on-chain hotspots boost natural project spread.

Typical Cases

{$FARTCOIN} (Fartcoin) and {$GOAT} (Goatseus Maximus) are some typical meme coin projects from the Pump.fun platform. The common point of these projects is that although they don’t have clear teams and Roadmaps, they have attracted a large number of users with strong community vitality and high speculativity.

Gate Fun: An Ecosystem Revolution of On-Chain Launch Platforms

Source: https://web3.gate.com/en/gatefun/createtoken

Gate Fun is a brand new on-chain launch platform (On-Chain Launchpad) launched by the Gate ecosystem in 2025, built on the Gate Layer public chain. The platform is based on the core concept of “zero-code coin issuance + full-scenario trading”, aiming to allow any user to complete token issuance and trading initiation with extremely low barriers. It marks the deep integration of centralized exchange ecosystems (CeFi) and on-chain innovation (DeFi), and is an important evolutionary direction of the Meme Launchpad model.

Token Issuance Mechanism and Creator System

Users who successfully issue tokens on Gate Fun are defined as “token creators”. When the bonding curve progress of a token reaches 100%, the system automatically triggers liquidity migration (i.e., “graduation”), and the token will officially enter the Gate Swap platform for circulation, completing the closed loop from creation to trading.

Three steps to complete coin issuance:

1. Wallet Connection: Connect Gate Wallet, Metamask, and other wallets, ensuring a small amount of GT is held for Gas fees.
2. Parameter Filling: Enter basic information such as token name, symbol, description, and image (cannot be modified after submission).
3. Issuance Confirmation: After paying 0.0000042 GT Gas fee, the system automatically deploys the contract and creates trading pairs, and the token is immediately listed.

The core advantages of Gate Fun are:

• Users don’t need to operate on-chain wallets or sign contracts;
• Platform review mechanism reduces Rug (exit scam) and fraud risks;
• Clearer project disclosure and marketing support.

Compared to Pump.fun’s “decentralized explosion”, Gate Fun represents a “regulation-friendly + controllable liquidity” Meme Launchpad model, also opening a new entry point for centralized exchanges into the Meme ecosystem.

Platform Logic and Fund Security

Comparison of Dual Ecosystems in Meme Launchpad: Pump.fun vs Gate Fun

New Project Discovery Mechanism and Participation Methods

In the world of Meme investment, “early discovery” is almost equivalent to excess returns. For Launchpad platforms, whoever can capture “potential hot spots” faster can complete layout before the capital tide arrives.

Pump.fun’s discovery logic tends towards “algorithmic recommendation + community heat”: on-chain data refreshes the ranking list in real-time, and anyone can see the tokens with the highest trading volume or price increase; social spread of popular projects often completes fission within hours.

Gate Fun’s recommendation mechanism is more orderly: the system dynamically ranks based on token activity, community discussion, and trading depth. Quality projects can enter a higher exposure pool through the “Gate Layer Community Star” program, ultimately leading directly to Gate Swap and even the Gate spot market.

For investors, this difference means different strategy choices: Pump.fun is the scene for “mining hit products”; Gate Fun is the entry point for “laying out potential stocks”.

Risk Filtering and Investment Threshold

The emergence of Meme Launchpad is essentially the market seeking a “controllable speculation mechanism”.

On Pump.fun, any wallet can issue coins, innovation speed is extremely fast, but risks are equally high.

Common issues include:

• Project team withdrawing funds prematurely (Rug Pull);
• Impersonation of popular tokens;
• Lack of auditing and tracking.

While Gate Fun’s centralized model introduces a review layer and custody mechanism:

• Traceable coin issuance process;
• Fund flow locked by smart contracts;
• Platform undertakes initial screening and risk control.

This difference begins to differentiate investment thresholds:

• On-chain users pursue high returns and can bear risks;
• Platform users prefer safe tokens with continuous returns.

In other words, Pump.fun is a testing ground, Gate Fun is an incubator. Together, they form the risk layering structure of the Meme market.

The Impact of Meme Launchpad on Market Liquidity

Launchpad not only reshapes the act of “issuing coins” but also changes how market liquidity is distributed. In the Pump.fun model, liquidity explodes in the short term, quickly focuses on a single point, and then naturally declines as attention decreases; this mechanism leads to extremely high volatility and short-cycle markets.

In Gate Fun’s ecosystem, liquidity migration is part of the system design: tokens automatically transfer to Gate Swap and are permanently locked after completing 100% fundraising progress, then form a continuous cycle through trading entries such as Gate Alpha, Web3, Meme Go.

This means that centralized Launchpad is no longer just a “coin issuance tool”, but a hub that can bind attention, liquidity, and ecosystem value together.

Eventually, the market may evolve into a two-layer structure:

• On-chain platforms provide innovation and social hot spots;
• Centralized platforms provide trust and long-term capital.

This is the key step for the Meme investment ecosystem to move from “grassroots” to “systematization”.

Summary

Pump.fun and Gate Fun represent two paths for Meme Launchpad -

The former is an open experimental field, where anyone can create, on-chain automatically generates liquidity, bringing unprecedented innovation speed and social explosive power;

The latter is an ecosystem hub, rebuilding order under a centralized system, ensuring fund security and user experience.

From a market structure perspective, these two models are not opposed but complementary:

• Decentralized platforms promote the diversity of Meme creation and cultural spread;
• Centralized platforms are responsible for screening and amplifying quality projects, establishing liquidity entry points and user trust.

The future Meme market is likely to present a “dual-layer ecosystem” pattern:

On-chain innovation is responsible for igniting narratives, while centralized platforms are responsible for taking over traffic and funds. This means that investors not only need to understand the projects themselves but also learn to judge the platform logic they rely on - freedom means high risk, while order often comes with the sustainability of opportunities.