Solana News Today: Heaven Launchpad ICO Closes Early After Raising $27M in 11 Hours

Heaven Launchpad’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) concluded ahead of schedule after raising over $27 million within just 11 hours, marking one of the fastest fundraising events on the Solana blockchain [1]. The platform, known as Heaven AMM, raised funds from more than 9,000 wallets, far surpassing expectations for such a short window. The ICO was initially intended to last 48 hours but was closed early, reportedly due to hitting an undisclosed cap [1].

Despite the impressive capital inflow, Heaven has yet to publicly unveil a fully developed product. Its marketing strategy relied heavily on provocative videos criticizing the current state of Solana launchpads, along with aesthetic visuals and screenshots [1]. The team cited high traffic—over 25,000 visitors to the ICO site—exceeding the site’s rate limits, which led to discrepancies between on-chain sales and front-end display [1].

The Heaven team announced that refunds would be distributed proportionally to contributors in the coming weekend to reduce the platform’s native token, $LIGHT, valuation and potentially adjust the token distribution by limiting whale allocations [1]. This move reflects a strategy to align incentives between the platform and its users, a trend seen in recent Solana-based projects like letsBonk and GoFundMeme, which have returned value through token buybacks [1].

Heaven differentiates itself through its 100% revenue-to-buyback model and the implementation of Creator Flywheels, a mechanism that allows token creators to allocate protocol income for their tokens’ benefit. This includes automatic token swaps and burns, permanently removing assets from circulation [1]. The platform also eliminates the need for token projects to graduate from bonding curves, allowing direct AMM pairings with minimal "virtual SOL," a mathematical placeholder representing $35 SOL [1].

The rapid success of the ICO has drawn comparisons to the speculative frenzy of early 2024, where projects like $GM, $SLERF, and $PAIN raised millions in presales with little to no product development [1]. While Heaven may be more structured in its approach, the speed of the fundraising still highlights the volatile and speculative nature of the Solana DeFi and meme economy.

The $LIGHT token currently has a circulating market cap of $27.3 million, surpassing several well-known Solana DeFi platforms, including Adrena, Bullet, and DeFiTuna [1]. However, its valuation is expected to decline after the refund process, though the exact magnitude remains uncertain.

Source: [1] Heaven Launchpad ICO closes early after raising $27M (https://solanafloor.com/zh/news/heaven-launchpad-ico-closes-early-after-raising-27m)