Original Article Title: The Return of ICOs: 500%+ Public Sale Returns Are Real

Original Article Author: Stacy Muur, Crypto Researcher

Original Article Translation: Luffy, Foresight News

After the frenzy of 2017, the era of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) has finally returned to the market, but the operational mechanism is vastly different from the chaotic situation of the past Gas Wars. This is not a nostalgic journey, but a brand-new market structure shaped by new infrastructure, more refined allocation designs, and a clearer regulatory framework.

In 2017, as long as there was an Ethereum contract and a whitepaper, anyone could raise millions of dollars in minutes. There was no standardized compliance process at that time, no structured allocation model, and certainly no post-listing liquidity framework. Most investors entered blindly, with many witnessing their tokens plummet shortly after listing. With regulatory bodies stepping in, ICOs gradually faded away in the following years, replaced by venture capital rounds, SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens), exchange IEOs (Initial Exchange Offerings), and later, retrospective airdrops.

Fast forward to 2025, and the trend has reversed.

However, the change is not in projects issuing at lower valuations; in fact, the Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) is higher than ever before. The real change lies in the admission mechanism.

Launchpads no longer rely on pure speed competition or Gas Wars. Instead, they filter participants through KYC (Know Your Customer), reputation scores, or social influence, and then distribute quotas to thousands of participants in small amounts rather than large allocations to whale accounts.

For example, on the Buidlpad platform, my commitment to Falcon Finance was $5000, but I only received a $270 allocation, with the remaining funds refunded due to oversubscription. A similar situation occurred with Sahara AI, where my $5000 commitment resulted in a $600 allocation.

Oversubscription does not drive down prices; it only reduces individual allocations, maintaining a high FDV while achieving a broader token distribution.

Regulation has also caught up. Today, frameworks like the EU's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) provide a clear path for compliant retail investors to participate, and issuance platforms have streamlined KYC, geofencing, and eligibility checks into simple configuration switches.

On the liquidity front, some platforms go even further by encoding their post-launch policies directly into smart contracts, automatically injecting funds into liquidity pools, or stabilizing early trade prices through a mechanism that buys below a certain price and sells above a certain price.

By 2025, ICOs had accounted for about one-fifth of all token sale transaction volume, a stark contrast to almost negligible levels just two years prior.

This resurgence of ICOs was not driven by a single platform but rather stemmed from a new generation of issuance systems, each addressing different pain points:

· Echo's Sonar tool, supporting self-hosted, switchable compliance-mode cross-chain launches;

· Legion partnering with Kraken Launch, integrating a reputation-based allocation mechanism into the exchange process;

· MetaDAO embedding treasury controls and liquidity range functions at launch;

· Buidlpad focusing on KYC admission, community-first distribution models, and providing a structured refund mechanism.

These platforms collectively united to transform ICOs from a chaotic fundraising tool into a meticulously designed market structure where participation, pricing, and liquidity are all planned rather than put together haphazardly.

They individually tackled the pain points that plagued the market during the first ICO boom, collectively constructing a more structured, transparent, and investment-worthy environment. Let's delve into each of them.

Echo: Self-Hosted, Switchable Compliance, Surging in Popularity

Founded by Cobie, Echo, with its self-hosted public sale tool Sonar, emerged as one of the breakthrough token launch infrastructures in 2025. Unlike centralized launchpads or exchange IEOs, Echo offers infrastructure rather than a trading market, allowing projects to autonomously choose their sale format (fixed price, auction, or treasury/credit mode), set KYC/accredited investor/geo-restriction rules via Echo Passport, distribute sale links on their own, and support launches on multiple chains like Solana, Base, Hyperliquid, Cardano, and more.

The platform has seen rapid growth:

Echo's most prominent case is Plasma. In July this year, the project conducted a time-weighted treasury sale, offering 10% of tokens at a price of $0.05, attracting commitments of over $50 million. Plasma achieved a historical high return on investment (ROI) of 33.78x, making it one of the best-performing ICO projects of the year. Following closely behind, LAB also achieved an ROI of 6.22x at listing.

Here is an overview of Echo's recent launchpad projects:

These data not only reflect the profit potential but also indicate the diversity of returns. While Plasma and LAB have brought high multiple returns, other projects like Superform and Perpl have not yet been listed or disclosed their performance. It is important to note that Echo does not enforce a post-sale liquidity framework; liquidity pool injections, market maker requirements, and unlock schedules are all determined by the issuer rather than a platform-wide regulation.

Investor Note: Echo's flexibility has made it the highest-yielding launchpad infrastructure in this cycle, but it also requires investors to conduct thorough due diligence. Make sure to confirm the following three points:

· Compliance toggles (KYC/Accredited Investor rules);

· Sale format (Treasury, Auction, or Fixed Price);

· Issuer's liquidity plan (Echo does not standardize this).

Legion and Kraken Launch: Combining Reputation and Regulation

If Echo represents issuer-led flexibility, Legion is the complete opposite; it is a structured, reputation-based public sale channel.

In September of this year, Kraken Launch officially went live, with its underlying technology fully supported by Legion. This marks the first time that token sales have taken place directly within Kraken accounts, following MiCA compliance requirements and prioritizing participants based on a reputation score.

The platform has seen rapid growth:

At the core of Legion is the Legion Score—a 0-1000 reputation index calculated based on on-chain activity, technical contributions (such as GitHub commits), social interactions, and endorsements from others.

Projects can reserve a certain percentage of token allocations (usually 20%-40%) for high-scoring users, with the remaining allocation being opened up to either a first-come, first-served or lottery phase. This completely disrupts the traditional ICO allocation model: no longer rewarding the fastest bots but instead rewarding developers, contributors, and influential community members.

Here is an overview of Legion's recent launchpad projects:

The integration of Kraken also added an additional layer of security: exchange-level Know Your Customer (KYC) / Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, as well as Day One liquidity. This is akin to a combination of an IPO-style launch with a community allocation mechanism. Early examples such as YieldBasis and Bitcoin Hyper saw significant oversubscription in the privileged sale phase (targeted at high-score users), while low-score users were directed to limited-capacity public sale rounds.

Of course, it is not perfect. Some early users pointed out that the Legion Score may overly emphasize social influence—the ranking of large X platform account holders may surpass true developers, and the transparency of the score weighting system still needs improvement. But compared to past lottery chaos, this is already a significant improvement.

Investor Note: The Legion Score is crucial. To secure an allocation in a high-quality project launch, it is necessary to build an on-chain record and contribution profile early. Additionally, be sure to confirm the allocation ratio between the privileged sale round and public sale round for each project, as this rule can vary between projects.

MetaDAO: Mechanism First, Marketing Second

MetaDAO is doing something that no other launch infrastructure has ever attempted: directly encoding post-launch market policies into the protocol itself.

Its operational mechanism is as follows: if a sale on MetaDAO is successful, all raised USDC will be deposited into a treasury managed by the market, and the token minting authority will be transferred to that treasury; the treasury will inject 20% of the USDC, along with 5 million tokens, into the liquidity pool of the Solana DEX; at the same time, the treasury is set to "buy below ICO price and sell above ICO price," forming a soft price range around the pegged price from the first day of the sale.

While the mechanism may seem simple, it fundamentally alters the early trading dynamics. In a traditional ICO, if there is insufficient liquidity or insiders sell off, the secondary market price may experience a sharp drop; however, with MetaDAO's price range mechanism, the early price often fluctuates within a defined range—downward movements are smaller, and explosive rises are also limited. This is a mechanism safeguard rather than a verbal promise. If the market has no demand at all, the treasury funds will eventually be depleted, but it can guide market behavior on the critical first day.

The most representative case is Solana's privacy protocol Umbra. Umbra's sale attracted over 10,000 participants, with the raised funds reportedly exceeding $150 million, and the sale page even displayed real-time data on large allocations. Witnessing this transparent distribution, one can almost glimpse a more structured future for ICOs—transparent, on-chain, and policy-driven.

Investor Notice: When participating in the MetaDAO sale, be sure to take note of the ICO price and understand the price range rules. If you buy at a price slightly above the upper limit of the range, be aware that the treasury may become your counterparty (selling the token) during the price increase; if you buy at a price slightly below the lower limit of the range, you may be picked up by the treasury. MetaDAO rewards investors who understand the mechanism, not speculators chasing hype.

Buidlpad: Embracing Compliant Retail Investors

Buidlpad focuses on one simple yet powerful feature: providing a clear community round participation path for compliant retail investors. Founded in 2024, the platform's core process is divided into two stages: first, users complete KYC registration and reservation; then, they submit a funding commitment during the investment window. If the sale is oversubscribed, excess funds will be refunded. Some sales also have graded FDV requirements, with lower FDVs in the early stages and higher FDVs in the later stages.

Buidlpad's milestone moment came in September this year with Falcon Finance's sale. The project aimed to raise $4 million but ultimately received commitments of $112.8 million, achieving a staggering 28x oversubscription. The KYC phase was from September 16-19, the investment phase was on the 22-23, and refunds were completed by the 26th, with the entire process being smooth, transparent, and entirely driven by retail investors.

Simplicity is Buidlpad's strength. It does not engage in complex scoring systems or have a predictive treasury; instead, it focuses solely on providing a structured participation channel for a compliant community. However, it's important to note that liquidity is still entirely dependent on the issuer's planning, and cross-chain decentralized sales can sometimes lead to post-sale trading volume dispersion.

Investor Notice: Mark key dates. The KYC/reservation window is a hard deadline, and missing it will result in losing eligibility. Also, carefully review the tier structure—early stages often allow entry at a lower FDV.

Cross-Platform Commonalities and Risks

Overall, these platforms exhibit several common characteristics:

· Oversubscription is widespread, but the hype may not be lasting. Falcon's 28x oversubscription, Plasma's billion-dollar attention, Umbra's massive demand—these headline figures may seem dazzling. However, without sustained use cases, a high FDV often means that early prices will fall once the post-sale hype fades.

· Mechanisms dictate volatility. MetaDAO's buy/sell range can indeed reduce chaos but may also limit the maximum return near the sell range; Echo and Buidlpad rely entirely on issuer self-regulation; Legion depends on exchange listings to provide liquidity depth.

· Reputation System Changes Quota Logic. With Legion, early reputation building may now mean the difference between receiving a significant quota and competing in a restricted public sale pool.

· Compliance Screening Is an Advantage, Not a Flaw. KYC Window, Accredited Investor Switch, Exclusive Enjoyment Score Screening—these mechanisms have reduced chaos but have also intensified participation hierarchy.

Yet, beneath these surface appearances, risks still exist: the scoring system may be manipulated, the treasury may be mismanaged, whales can still dominate quotas through multiple wallets, and regulatory enforcement may lag behind marketing hype. These mechanisms are not a panacea; they simply change the dynamics of the market game.

Investor's Guide for 2025

If you want to astutely navigate a new wave of ICO frenzy, you need to think from a structural perspective:

· Understand the Mechanism First, Then Restrain FOMO. Is it a fixed price or an auction? Is there an exclusive phase or purely first-come, first-served? Is there a treasury price range or complete laissez-faire?

· Mark the Qualification Window. KYC/Appointment deadlines, Accredited Investor requirements, geographical restrictions—missing one date could mean missing out on the entire quota.

· Grasp the Liquidity Plan. Is it MetaDAO's coded liquidity range? Kraken's exchange listing? Or the issuance party's autonomous plan on Sonar? Liquidity determines the early price trend.

· Strategic Positioning. Participation in MetaDAO requires an understanding of the price range, participation in Legion requires early accumulation of reputation, and participation in Buidlpad requires targeting the early stage.

· Properly Control Your Allocation. Popular projects with oversubscriptions do not guarantee strong performance in the secondary market. Consider these investments as structured bets rather than risk-free moonshot opportunities.

Author's Reflection

The resurgence of ICOs in 2025 is not about nostalgia but about new infrastructure, new rules, and a more self-regulated market. Platforms like Echo, Legion, MetaDAO, and Buidlpad have each addressed some of the flaws in the 2017 ICO model: some focus on compliance, some optimize quotas, and some improve liquidity policies. Together, they are working to transform public token sales from speculative frenzies to a more structured capital formation process.

For investors, this means that the advantage is no longer just about early entry but about understanding the mechanism. Because in 2025, ICOs have not faded away but are maturing.

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