Uniswap Labs enters the launchpad race with Pools.trade at a 0.25% fee

Uniswap Labs launched Pools.trade on Robinhood Chain on August 5, its own token launch product, and priced it below every launchpad already on the chain.

The mechanics

• Two launch modes. Crowd Launch collects bids over a four-hour window with time-weighted pricing to blunt bundlers, refunds everyone if the raise does not reach a USD 10k fully diluted value, and lets the creator buy in the launch block. Instant Launch uses a bonding curve with no minimum.
• Fees. A 0.25% LP fee, which autocompounds into the permanently locked liquidity position. Creators can optionally take 0.05% of that. There is no launchpad fee.
• Distribution. Tokens launched here show up in the Uniswap web app, wallet, Launches marketplace and the routing API used by MetaMask and Ledger.

How it compares

Pons, the chain's dominant launchpad by fees, launches fixed-supply tokens into a 1% Uniswap v3 pool and splits that fee 70% to the creator and 30% to the protocol, with most of the protocol share buying back PONS. Pools.trade charges a quarter of that and gives creators almost none of it, betting on volume and distribution instead of creator payouts.

What to watch

Whether creators follow the money (Pons) or the reach (Uniswap). Our launch cards tag every new pool with its launchpad, so the answer shows up in the data.