How the Launchpad Rankings Work
The RootData Launchpad Rankings assess token launch platforms across operational strength, market influence, and stage-specific performance. They help users understand each platform’s business foundation, ecosystem impact, and growth potential.
The rankings cover both platforms with issued tokens and platforms in the pre-TGE stage. A common evaluation framework uses indicators suited to each stage, offering a reference for understanding the Launchpad landscape and platform competitiveness.
1. Understanding the Overall Score
The overall score is out of 100, combining operational strength (50%), market influence (30%), and token performance / growth potential (20%). It brings together business data, industry influence, and development stage to assess a platform as a whole, rather than treating any single indicator as a measure of its overall strength.
Operational Strength | 50%
This dimension considers platform fees, protocol revenue, trading scale, returns distributed to holders, and blockchain ecosystem coverage. Combining short-term activity with longer-term business performance, it assesses operating scale, commercial viability, and breadth of ecosystem coverage.
Market Influence | 30%
The RootData Growth Index, influence on X, mentions by prominent people, and representative projects help assess a platform’s development trends, brand influence, and ecosystem identity, reflecting its influence within the industry. Mentions and project associations are evaluation references; they do not imply investment, partnership, or endorsement.
Token Performance / Growth Potential | 20%
The indicators depend on the platform’s stage. For platforms with issued tokens, the assessment focuses on token market position, trading activity, price performance, and holder mechanisms such as buybacks, burns, and staking. For pre-TGE platforms, it considers recorded team information, credible funding records, and public project updates to assess their foundations and potential.
Both types of platform have the same maximum stage-specific score, but use indicators suited to their respective stages. Recorded team information does not represent the full size of the team, and public project updates do not necessarily represent completed deliverables.
What Scores and Rankings Mean
A higher score indicates stronger overall performance within the current framework. Because platforms differ in stage and strengths, similar scores may reflect different business structures and development paths. The key data displayed on the page complements the overall score; some information that is not shown separately still contributes to the assessment.
Data Sources and Updates
The rankings combine data from DeFiLlama, RootData, and verified official project APIs and on-chain sources. Indicator definitions, business attribution, and reporting periods are checked across sources so that data is displayed and scored on a consistent basis. Projects do not need to be listed by a third-party data platform first; official data that meets verification requirements can also be assessed.
The rankings are updated using the latest available data. Changes in a platform’s business, market performance, or available information may affect its score and position. RootData will continue refining the framework as the industry evolves and data coverage improves, so the rankings better reflect changes in the Launchpad ecosystem.
2. Project Inclusion and Data Integration Guide
RootData evaluates inclusion based on business relevance, verifiable data, and reproducible measurement methods. Project teams may apply for integration or supplement and correct data for existing entries. Submitted materials establish and improve the basis for evaluation; they do not directly translate into extra points or a higher ranking.
How to Apply and Integrate
Official contact email: contact@rootdata.com
Inclusion application email subject: Launchpad Ranking Inclusion Application | Project Name
Data correction email subject: Launchpad Data Correction | Project Name
- Prepare materials: Compile basic project information, proof of official identity, business data sources, and relevant token or development-stage information, with links to verifiable sources.
- Submit your application: Send the materials from the project’s official email address. If you use another address, also provide information that verifies your official role and contact details for a business or technical representative.
- Verification and technical assessment: RootData checks business attribution, data sources, measurement methods, and historical records, then assesses collection reliability and integration feasibility. The team may need to provide additional materials or help confirm calculations.
- Inclusion and ongoing updates: Once assessment and any required data integration are complete, the project enters the rankings under the same rules as other platforms. Teams should promptly report later changes to APIs, contracts, or business rules.
Frequently Asked Questions for Project Teams
Platforms providing token issuance, project launches, or related issuance infrastructure may apply for inclusion. RootData assesses the nature of the business, actual operations, and data availability.
The rankings cover platforms with issued tokens as well as pre-TGE platforms. Issuing a token or having buyback or burn mechanisms is not a prerequisite. Platforms with multiple business lines should identify their Launchpad module and its corresponding data scope.
No. Project teams may provide official APIs, smart contracts, on-chain programs, or other independently verifiable data sources for RootData to assess. Third-party listings can serve as references but are not required for ranking inclusion.
Please include links to any existing third-party data pages or RootData project profile. Database inclusion, third-party listings, and admission to the rankings are separate steps; none automatically grants eligibility for the rankings.
Start with the project name, website, official social accounts, business description, supported chains, and an official contact. Include the RootData project profile if one exists. If not, basic project information can be submitted for inclusion assessment at the same time.
Depending on the project’s actual business, provide the following applicable materials:
- Fees, revenue, and trading volume: Official data APIs and documentation, or relevant business contracts, fee collection addresses, and transaction records. Explain fee rules, revenue distribution, and reporting scope.
- Token buybacks: Buyback contracts or execution addresses, completed transaction records, and details of amounts spent, token quantities, and funding sources.
- Token burns: Token contracts, an explanation of the burn mechanism, and verifiable burn transactions, events, or supply-change records.
- Staking and holder returns: Staking or distribution contracts, reward sources, distribution rules, and actual payout records. Distinguish business revenue distributions from incentives funded by new token issuance.
- Team, funding, and project updates: Publicly verifiable team information, funding announcements, investor disclosures, and project progress links.
- Representative projects and mentions by prominent people: Links to the relevant projects or people, with original sources demonstrating the launch relationship, association, or public mention.
Provide materials as applicable; projects do not need to offer every business function or token benefit. Clearly distinguish mechanisms that have not yet been implemented from completed activity. For unavailable fields, explain why and identify any additional data sources that could help.
Submissions may use official APIs, on-chain contracts, or a combination. Having both an API and smart contracts is not required. Any approach must allow source verification and reproducible calculations, and support an ongoing supply of relevant data.
- Queryable APIs: Provide documentation, any necessary read-only access method, field definitions, and update frequency. Reported totals should be traceable to historical records or details for the corresponding period.
- On-chain traceability: Identify the chain, contract or program addresses, relevant collection or execution addresses, events or transactions, and the method used to calculate indicators from raw records. An address alone, without business context and calculation details, is generally insufficient.
- Comparable measurement: Specify business attribution, reporting scope, time window and time zone, currency units, token decimals, and USD conversion methods. Clearly separate data for the overall platform, its Launchpad module, and launched projects to avoid double counting across sources or modules.
- Historical records: Ideally provide queryable records for the last 30 days. Projects launched less than 30 days ago may provide complete records since launch and state the launch date. Do not substitute estimates for activity that has not yet occurred.
Values returned by official APIs still require verification. Screenshots, promotional materials, and summary figures with no traceable source may supplement an application, but cannot serve as the sole basis for scoring.
Explain fees and platform revenue separately. Fees reflect what users pay to use the protocol. Platform revenue must identify the portion attributable to the protocol, team, or token holders and explain its distribution, separating fees paid to liquidity providers and other participants. Funding proceeds, users’ deposited principal, and internal fund transfers must not be reported as business revenue.
Buybacks and burns are assessed using actual execution records; future plans or announcements are not completed activity. Funds used for a buyback followed by a burn are not counted twice. The quantity or valuation of burned treasury tokens does not directly equate to platform revenue or holder returns.
RootData checks sources, business attribution, and calculation methods for consistency. Additional materials may be requested for insufficiently verifiable data or disputed attribution. The affected fields are not used directly for scoring until confirmed.
Yes. Explain which fields are missing, how long the project has actually operated, and what alternative verification materials are available. RootData assesses integration readiness using the available information and may wait for additional data or further observation where necessary.
Distinguish clearly between “zero,” “not applicable,” and “no verifiable data yet.” An absent business activity, a mechanism that is not yet enabled, and temporarily unavailable data should not be reported in the same way. A missing field is not a verified zero.
Submitting an application does not guarantee inclusion or a particular ranking. RootData evaluates business attribution, authenticity of materials, data completeness, and technical integration feasibility. Approved projects are scored and ranked under consistent rules.
Processing time depends on the completeness of materials, verification complexity, and integration workload. Applications requiring more information or verification proceed once the relevant issues are resolved. No fixed inclusion date is promised.
Email the official contact address above, specifying the project, fields, reporting period, reason for correction, and supporting links. Changes to API addresses, contract addresses, revenue distribution, token benefits, or business scope should also be reported promptly, with an explanation and effective date.
RootData reviews the materials and, once confirmed, updates project information, data integration, or evaluation results. Additional information is intended to reflect the project accurately and completely; it does not guarantee extra points or a higher ranking.