The average return rate is 400%. Do you know all three crypto IDO platforms with super high returns?

Author: Penny

In the field of cryptocurrency, IDO (Initial DEX Offering, the first decentralized exchange issuance) is becoming an important bridge for project parties to connect with the community. IDO is a token issuance method based on decentralized exchanges. Compared with IC0 (initial token issuance) and IE0 (initial token issuance), its biggest feature is decentralization and instant liquidity. The project party issues tokens directly on DEX through smart contracts. Investors can participate without intermediaries, and the tokens can be circulated after the transaction is completed. The crypto community has long been dissatisfied with the VC coins with "high valuation, high FDV, and low circulation". 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-stage investments.

Echo: Elite Recommendations and Community Alliance

Echo was founded in March 2024 by encrypted KOL Cobie (@echodotxyz). Cobie was the growth leader of Lido, hosted the popular Web3 podcast UpOnly, and interviewed core personnel in the industry such as Vitalik Buterin. His influence cannot be underestimated.

The core of Echo is the "leading investment recommendation mechanism": users can create an investment community as the leader, share projects with members and extract share from them. This model is similar to the "elite alliance" of crypto investors, and tends to choose high-potential projects recognized by small circles. The highlight of Echo is its community-driven model that manages investments through smart contracts, ensuring that the lead investor is not exposed to user funds and allowing users to decide when to sell tokens. If the leader invests successfully, he can get a percentage of the follower's profit, which will incentivize high-quality projects to share. Although its elite orientation makes its user base relatively niche, this screening mechanism ensures project quality and attracts trustworthy investors. However, the Echo's closure also limits its size and 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. Among the well-known investment cases are Ethena's $300,000 financing and MegaETH's $10 million rapid financing.

Ethena As the first project to be invested by Echo, transaction participants were able to buy at a price of $300 million (the most recent private placement valued Ethena at $600 million), minus the 5% royalty on the Echo platform.

In the MegaETH financing case, the initial target of $4.2 million was reached in 56 seconds and eventually raised $10 million in 3 minutes. MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kong said the structure of this round of financing is equity plus token warrants, the same as MegaLabs' $20 million seed round in June, and the valuation of both rounds of financing was "hundreds of millions of dollars."

According to Dune statistics, a total of 7,739 independent investors have used Echo to facilitate 244 transactions, with a total financing of more than $100 million.

Legion: Reputation-based Innovation Financing

Legion is incubated by Delphi Labs and is positioned as a "reputation-based" IDO platform. In August 2024, Legion completed a $2 million seed round led by Cyber ​​Fund.
The biggest highlight of Legion is the introduction of the Legion Scores scoring system, which evaluates the value and capabilities of users by aggregating on-chain activities (such as transaction activity, project participation) and off-chain data (such as social media impact, community contribution). Projects can allocate investment amounts and discounts based on Legion Scores. This mechanism is designed to allow truly contributing users to get returns, rather than relying solely on the scale of funds. Legion does not require users to perform traditional tasks (such as staking or social tasks), but instead relies on the scoring system as the main allocation criteria.

Legion has supported financing for multiple projects, with a total amount of approximately US$3.5 million. About one-third of the total supported projects are blockchain infrastructure, one-third are blockchain services, one-six are AI and neural networks, and the remaining one-six are DeFi projects. According to CoinLaunch data, Legion's recent projects include Fuel Network, Corn Crypto Network, Giza Crypto, Hyperlane and eOracle. Among them, Fuel Network performed particularly well. After it launched Bitget in December 2024, the price once reached US$0.08. This successful case greatly enhanced Legion's recognition in the community.

Legion’s innovation lies in its decentralized, compliant financing model, and its reputation system provides more opportunities for non-certified investors, breaking the traditional VC-led financing landscape. Its vision is to solve the drawbacks in the traditional ICO market, such as fraud, robot participation and regulatory pressure, so that more non-certified investors can participate in early financing.

Buidlpad: Both openness and compliance

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 and accept stablecoin payments, lowering the threshold for participation. Its initial project Solayer (the re-staking agreement of Solana Eco) ended its public sale on January 18, 2025. It originally planned to raise US$10.5 million, but it eventually exceeded the fundraising to US$57.3 million, exceeding expectations by 545.24%. The public sale price of its token LAYER is US$0.35, and the price reaches up to US$1.2 after it is launched, with a return rate of more than 3 times.

Solayer’s successful financing shows Buidlpad’s appeal to the community, and its ecosystem has established partnerships with major DeFi players such as Binance and Bybit. Compared to Echo's elite route and Legion's reputation orientation, Buidlpad is more like a traditional ICO platform for the masses 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. While the KYC requirements may discourage some decentralists, their compliance has earned 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, choosing a reputable platform and delving into projects is crucial; for project parties, cooperating with these platforms requires balancing community interests and compliance requirements. Together, they have driven the decentralized wave of crypto financing and created a win-win situation for the community and project parties. 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.