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Gate, a tier-1 cryptocurrency ecosystem, is among the pioneers of a holistic approach to token launches, designed to be mutually beneficial for traders, stakers, investors and products releasing early-stage tokens.
In this review, U.Today covers the major opportunity unlocked by Gate's new token release stack in 2025.
One-stop ecosystem for all things tokens: Gate's 2025 in highlights
Rather than relying on a single flagship product or sporadic promotional pushes, Gate executed a highly active, ecosystem-level growth strategy, one where multiple products worked holistically to reinforce user acquisition, engagement and retention.
- Gate, a global mainstream centralized cryptocurrency exchange, is betting big on its multiproduct token launch ecosystem.
- In 2025, its self-custody product, Gate Alpha, cemented its supremacy as a go-to on-chain trading module with an ultra-flexible token listing policy.
- Launchpool and Launchpad, the protocols for a new token release and introduction to the Gate audience, helped promising protocols to secure billions of investments from retail.
- Gate HODLer Airdrop, Alpha Points System and CandyDrop unlocked plenty of rewards opportunities for performing basic trading activity within Gate's spot and futures modules.
- With total staking volume for new product release participants exceeding $29 billion, Gate is going to expand its presence in the segment throughout 2026.
Throughout the year, Gate broke multiple records across trading activity and user participation, emerging as one of the most dynamic CEXes on the market. At the core of this performance was a coordinated token launch ecosystem that merits closer examination.
Token launches, from concept to mainstream adoption: Gate's approach
Amid the core ecosystem focus, creating a holistic design for token launches underpinned by incentives, a rewards program and community initiatives was a key pillar of Gate's 2025 roadmap. Designed to amplify each other, Gate Alpha, Launchpool, Launchpad, HODLer Airdrop, CandyDrop and the Futures Points workloads changed the way Gate handles the release of new tokens.
Rather than operating as isolated tools, these products were designed to interlock — covering the full lifecycle from on-chain discovery and early-stage distribution to sustained user incentives and trading engagement.
This integrated structure allowed Gate to simultaneously serve different user segments while maintaining a coherent growth narrative. New users were drawn in through discovery and airdrops, active traders found ongoing incentives, and long-term participants benefited from staking and holding-based rewards.
Besides making even the simplest strategies profitable, transparent and rewarding, such approaches significantly lowered the barriers to entry to the scene of early-stage tokenization and unlocked a plenty of new opportunities for customers regardless of their deposit sizes.
Gate Alpha: Newbie-friendly gateway to on-chain trading and self-custody
At the front end of the ecosystem sits Gate Alpha, designed to bridge on-chain asset discovery with centralized exchange access. Throughout 2025, Gate Alpha maintained an aggressive onboarding cadence, listing hundreds of tokens every month.
This high-frequency approach allowed users to gain early exposure to emerging on-chain assets without leaving the Gate platform. As a result, the new project merged the benefits of 100% self-custody with the advanced and ultra-fast user interface of a familiar centralized exchange dashboard.
The unmatched trading experience on Gate Alpha was amplified by a generous reward program. By year-end, the cumulative airdrop rewards per account exceeded $7,200, positioning Gate Alpha as one of the most generous and consistent early-access programs in the industry.
Compared to traditional retroactive airdrops, Gate Alpha bonuses offer more predictable and relevant income opportunities with much less hassle.
Rather than isolated campaigns, Gate Alpha functions as a continuous discovery engine, feeding qualified projects and engaged users into the broader Gate ecosystem.
Gate Alpha, therefore, acted as a sustainable liquidity loop when the trader was able to discover new tokens, get the rewards, immediately bring them back to trading or staking accounts, get new rewards and so on. Such a mechanism is mutually beneficial for both traders and projects launching new tokens.
Gate Launchpool: Supporting the most promising platforms and services
If Gate Alpha focused on breadth, Launchpool and Launchpad delivered depth.
Launchpool, the platform designed to introduce early-stage tokens to a wide audience by airdropping them to stakers, hit a number of records in 2025.
In the last 12 months only, Gate Launchpool supported 200 projects, attracting more than 310,000 participants and generating over $29 billion in cumulative staking volume.
These figures place Gate among the most active token distribution platforms globally. By allowing users to stake assets to earn new tokens, Launchpool aligned long-term user engagement with project growth, creating sustained liquidity rather than short-lived hype.
Besides an understandable and sustainable reward scheme for stakers, Gate Launchpool mechanism connects the projects and their tokens to motivated, active and committed audiences only.
Gate Launchpad: Decentralized fundraising, reinvented
Gate Launchpad, an alternative to both classic initial coin offerings (ICOs) and initial exchange offerings (IEOs), expanded its mission of kickstarting promising projects with retail capital. This design allows new products to raise funds without relying on VCs, which, in turn, makes the entire process more decentralized, balanced and fair.
While obviously being more selective in choosing products for onboarding, Gate Launchpad demonstrated an equally impressive scale. Namely, it conducted community-driven sales of KDK by Kodiak Finance DeFi, IKA by Ika's first Sui-based MPC network, as well as 2025 blockbusters PUMP and XPL.
With just four projects launched during the year, total subscription volume surpassed $2.1 billion, underscoring strong user confidence in Gate-curated offerings and the platform’s ability to mobilize capital efficiently. An impressive total of 104,000 participants backed the Gate Launchpad's activities with their fund.
Also, within its Web3 section, Gate Launchpad organized the token sale of BOB, a core utility and governance cryptocurrency of the eponymous BTCFi protocol, with $4.7 million raised in a few days.
Gate's incentives design: More initiatives, bigger rewards
Besides the mentioned programs, Gate successfully organized a number of massive campaigns with rewards for users performing crucial activities for early-stage tokens.
HODLer Airdrop
HODLer Airdrop launched 206 projects in 2025, distributing over $8.5 million in rewards to all stakers of qualified tokens.
HODLer Airdrop is the most newbie-friendly rewards design, with no extra actions required from participants. In particular, users were encouraged to allocate a portion of their deposits into GT, a core Gate ecosystem utility token. By doing so, they accessed exclusive opportunities with emerging altcoins.
CandyDrop
CandyDrop, aimed at mass participation, attracted nearly six million participants and offered a prize pool close to $16 million, reinforcing Gate’s appeal among retail users.
In CandyDrop, users get "Candies" for performing simple tasks, while also getting a chance to win significant rewards in the biggest cryptocurrencies. For instance, in December 2025, traders get 1 Candy (≈ 0.000766 ETH) for achieving $1,000 in ETH futures trading volume, with the chances to get 0.04 ETH or even 0.06 ETH when the referral task is completed.
Futures Points System
One of the most popular rewards schemes, the Futures Points System, adds a trading-centric dimension. Across 52 campaigns, it drew over 200,000 participants and distributed more than $2.6 million in rewards, with top individual rewards exceeding $2,400.
Together, these programs ensured that traders, long-term holders and casual participants all found tailored pathways into the ecosystem.
Bonus: What to expect in 2026?
With staking volume already surpassing $29 billion in 2025, Gate appears poised to expand this model further. The platform has signaled plans for a broader partner network, more frequent campaigns, expanded Launchpad and Launchpool activity, and deeper integration with on-chain ecosystems.
In a year defined by fierce competition, Gate demonstrated that coordinated product design, instead of isolated growth hacks, can drive sustainable scale. As 2026 approaches, Gate is no longer just another exchange to watch. It has become a reference point for how CEX ecosystems can evolve.
Wrapping up
In the year 2025, Gate's token launch ecosystem integrated a number of interconnected products: Gate Alpha, Launchpool, Launchpad, as well as rewards initiatives HODLer Airdrop, CandyDrop and Futures Points.
Gate Alpha listed hundreds of tokens monthly with over $7,200 in cumulative rewards per account. Launchpool supported 200 projects, with $29 billion in staking volume and 310,000 participants. Launchpad conducted four high-profile sales totaling $2.1 billion in subscriptions from 104,000 participants.
Amid all centralized exchange ecosystems, Gate offers the most mature and diverse lineup of community-centric token launch services, making the entire process holistic, sustainable and newbie-friendly.
Vladislav Sopov
Gamza Khanzadaev
Godfrey Benjamin