Altcoins
|4 min ReadMisaligned incentives trap traders in launchpad churn
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
The hook you cannot ignore
You feel the grind. New tokens appear. Prices pop, then fade. Most traders bleed. The reason is simple. Incentives run the show. Today they are pointed at volume, not price.
Launchpads act like casinos. Their north star is trading volume. More listings. More spins. A few jackpots to bait the crowd. Then a flood of new tickets to keep the tables hot. When they need market share, or want to hurt a rival, they slow fresh launches, let a few coins rip, market the green candles, and pull users in. Once belief returns, they reopen the firehose. Volume surges. This is not a complaint. It is the model.
Why the game pays volume, not price
A launchpad earns by existing. It offers permissionless issuance and a bonding curve. That curve is just an automated price machine. It gives everyone a lottery. The platform pushes two levers to grow. It runs campaigns that tout “difference” or spread fear about rivals. It also boosts a few token charts. Both drive clicks and trades.
Creators play the same game. Stream, issue, repeat. They profit by showing up and selling the ticket, not by defending price. Attention is fickle. Long-term support is costly. Short-term cash is easy. So supply keeps coming. More tokens. More speculation. The wheel spins.
How traders become the cannon fodder
What about us. We are the trench. We dig it and fall into it. No major player is paid to lift price for long. So the arena is pure player versus player. You win by taking someone else’s stack.
That is why tactics get extreme. Multiple wallets stake early. A single actor can pre-commit 10 percent of a token’s supply if the curve allows it. Timing is everything. Late buyers become exit liquidity. They fund the winners.
To make money you must outwork the field. Build skill. Build judgment. Grow your network. Track signals across chains, products, and people. Even when a CCM-style token rips, you rarely hold. A fresh lottery is always on the way. The machine needs new tickets, which means new losers. For every account that wins on Axiom, hundreds blow up to zero. That is the battlefield.
What still works right now
This loop will end one day. Winners will keep winning until there are no fresh losers. Then the wheel stops. Launchpads will return with a few “premium” tickets and start the cycle again. Snake eating its tail.
Notice the tokens that hold up best lately. They rarely come from bonding curves. They come from projects where insiders and VCs lock large allocations. Their incentive is clear. Push price higher into unlocks. That is why these can trend. It is the only group truly paid to defend price.
There is no neat fix offered here. Only hard math. If a team wants a token to work, avoid pure bonding curve launches. Otherwise a sharp kid with Axiom and a stack of wallets can scoop 10 percent on day one. As an on-chain trader, I see expected value falling. The model needs new incentives or the churn repeats.
Until change arrives, act like a pro. Know the rules. Play early or do not play. Follow the flows that are actually paid to win. Fortune favors the bold. The field is ruthless. Be faster, sharper, and harder to fade.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.