Original author: Penny, BlockBeats
In the field of cryptocurrency, IDO (Initial DEX Offering) as a new financing method is becoming an important bridge between project parties and the community. IDO is a token issuance method based on decentralized exchanges. Compared with IC0 (Initial Coin Offering) and IE 0 (Initial Exchange Offering), its biggest features are decentralization and instant liquidity. Project parties issue tokens directly on DEX through smart contracts. Investors can participate without intermediaries, and tokens can circulate after the transaction is completed. The crypto community has long been dissatisfied with the high valuation, high FDV, and low circulation VC coins. IDO has become a popular choice for project parties to attract community support, which has also promoted the rise of emerging IDO platforms such as Echo, Legion, and Buidlpad. These platforms not only provide financial support for projects, but also give ordinary users the opportunity to participate in early investment.
Echo: Elite Recommendation and Community Alliance
Echo was founded by crypto KOL Cobie (@echodotxyz) in March 2024. Cobie was the head of growth at Lido, hosted the popular Web3 podcast UpOnly, and interviewed key industry figures such as Vitalik Buterin. His influence cannot be underestimated.
The core of Echo lies in the lead investor recommendation mechanism: users can create investment communities as lead investors, share projects with members and extract commissions from them. This model is similar to the elite alliance of crypto investors, and tends to choose high-potential projects recognized by a small circle. The highlight of Echo is its community-driven model, which manages investments through smart contracts, ensures that lead investors do not touch user funds, and allows users to decide when to sell tokens. If the lead investor succeeds in the investment, he can get a percentage of the followers profit, which incentivizes the sharing of high-quality projects. Although its elite orientation makes its user base relatively niche, this screening mechanism ensures the quality of the project and attracts investors who value trust. However, Echos closed nature also limits its scale, and it may be difficult to meet the needs of a wider range of retail investors.
Since its launch in April 2024, Echo has invested $100,000 in new startups in less than five months, covering more than 40 investment groups. Notable investment cases include Ethenas $300,000 financing and MegaETHs $10 million rapid financing.
Ethena is the first project in which Echo has participated in the investment. Transaction participants can buy it at a price when it is valued at US$300 million (the most recent private placement valued Ethena at US$600 million), minus a 5% royalty fee on the Echo platform.
In the case of MegaETH financing, the initial target of $4.2 million was reached in 56 seconds, and $10 million was eventually raised in 3 minutes. MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kong said that the structure of this round of financing is equity plus token warrants, which is the same as MegaLabs $20 million seed round in June, and the valuation of both rounds of financing is hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to Dune data, to date, 7,739 independent investors have used Echo to facilitate 244 transactions with a total financing amount of more than US$100 million.
Legion: Innovative reputation-based financing
Legion was incubated by Delphi Labs and positioned as a reputation-based IDO platform. In August 2024, Legion completed a $2 million seed round of financing, led by Cyber Fund.
The biggest highlight of Legion is the introduction of the Legion Scores rating system, which evaluates the value and ability of users by aggregating on-chain activities (such as trading activity, project participation) and off-chain data (such as social media influence, community contribution). Projects can allocate investment quotas and discounts based on Legion Scores. This mechanism is designed to allow users who truly contribute to receive rewards rather than simply relying on the size of funds. Legion does not require users to perform traditional tasks (such as staking or social tasks), but relies on the rating system as the main allocation criterion.
Legion has supported the financing of multiple projects with a total amount of approximately US$3.5 million. About 1/3 of the total supported projects are blockchain infrastructure, 1/3 are blockchain services, 1/6 are AI and neural networks, and the remaining 1/6 are DeFi projects. According to CoinLaunch data, Legions recent projects include Fuel Network, Corn Crypto Network, Giza Crypto, Hyperlane and eOracle. Among them, Fuel Networks performance is particularly outstanding. After it was launched on Bitget in December 2024, the price once reached US$0.08. This success story has greatly enhanced Legions recognition in the community.
Legions innovation lies in its decentralized and compliant financing model. Its reputation system provides more opportunities for non-certified investors, breaking the traditional VC-dominated financing pattern. Its vision is to solve the drawbacks of the traditional ICO market, such as fraud, robot participation and regulatory pressure, and allow more non-certified investors to participate in early financing.
Building: Openness and compliance are equally important
Buidlpad was founded by former Binance executive Erick Zhang and officially launched in December 2024. Erick was in charge of Binance Research Institute and Launchpad and is well versed in the operation of financing platforms. Buidlpad emphasizes openness and compliance, requiring users to pass KYC certification, while accepting stablecoin payments, lowering the threshold for participation. Its first project Solayer (Solana Ecosystems re-staking protocol) ended its public sale on January 18, 2025. It was originally planned to raise US$10.5 million, but it eventually over-raised to US$57.3 million, exceeding expectations by 545.24%. The public sale price of its token LAYER was US$0.35, and the price reached as high as US$1.2 after it went online, with a return rate of more than 3 times.
Solayers successful financing shows the appeal of Buidlpad to the community, and its ecosystem has established partnerships with major DeFi players such as Binance and Bybit. Compared with Echos elite route and Legions reputation orientation, Buidlpad is more like a traditional ICO platform for the general public, and is more suitable for projects that want to quickly attract a wide range of users. The platform ensures compliance and user-friendliness through KYC and stablecoin payments. Although KYC requirements may discourage some decentralists, its compliance has won it a regulatory-friendly advantage.
Echo, Legion, and Buidlpad represent different paths in the IDO field: Echo focuses on elite trust, Legion innovates reputation mechanisms, and Buidlpad pursues open compliance. For investors, it is crucial to choose reputable platforms and conduct in-depth research on projects; for project owners, working with these platforms requires balancing community interests and compliance requirements. Together, they have promoted the decentralized wave of crypto financing and created a win-win situation for the community and project owners. In the future, with the advancement of blockchain technology and the growth of community power, IDO is expected to play a more important role in the crypto ecosystem.
