MoonVentures Analysis
By Abhay Mavalankar
In the past 18 months, launchpads have pulled in close to $800M of cumulative volume, turning what began as a Solana meme experiment into a persistent business with real, recurring revenues. The meta isn’t fading; it’s evolving.
Revenue is the scoreboard
When evaluating launchpads, activity metrics can be misleading. Anyone can spin up a token; most vanish within hours. Revenue is the scoreboard that shows who is turning speculation into a business.
The meta is evolving
Launchpads are no longer a Solana-only phenomenon.
Volume ≠ value: the quality problem
Despite thousands of new tokens, very few matter.
Platform differentiation:
Beyond raw numbers, the competitive battle is moving into features.
Zora’s growth in unique creators is real, but it hasn’t converted into revenue. At points this summer, Zora overtook Pump.fun in unique token creators. But creator surges have not translated to meaningful fees. Pump’s revenue comeback in August underscored the gap between creator activity and monetization. Creator mindshare may indicate where flow could shift next cycle, but revenue accrues to venues with lock-in mechanics, liquidity depth, and distribution.
The discovery layer
With thousands of launches daily, traders need tools to separate the signal from the noise. Metrics like early liquidity depth, holder dispersion, and contract risk flags are becoming the real alpha.
We’re seeing an arms race among trading terminals and dashboards (DexScreener, Birdeye, etc) to rank, filter, and route into the handful of launches that survive. Whether integrated into launchpads themselves or built as a parallel analytics layer, discovery will be the next choke point for the category.
Closing thought
Token launchpads have graduated. They’re no longer fringe meme factories, they’re emerging as core financial infrastructure. Today, Pump.fun and Bonk.fun dominate. But the next billion dollars won’t just come from more launches. It will come from platforms that combine Pump.fun’s revenue engine with fairness, trust, creator retention, and discovery. The casino is here to stay, but the house rules are changing.
Abhay Mavalankar serves as SVP of Strategy and Investments at MoonPay, where he leads MoonVentures. MoonVentures encompasses MoonPay’s corporate investment arm as well as MoonPay Labs, the company’s accelerator program dedicated to nurturing entrepreneurial talent and innovation across the crypto ecosystem.