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What is a TGE: 22 token launches and the $11.56B behind them

By NAUT Research · · 9 min read

$11.56B Token launches in 22 rounds of $200M or more at NAUT projects whose token now trades, 2017 to 2026. Logos: Vaulta (prev. EOS), Flow, Pump.fun, BlockDAG, World Liberty Financial, ApeCoin, TON, Secret Network, BitDAO, NEAR Protocol, Solana, Sui.

What is a TGE? It stands for token generation event, the moment a crypto project creates its token and puts it in holders' hands, which is also the day the token starts trading and the day its unlock schedule begins. NAUT tracks 22 projects that have a live, price-tracked token and a round of $200M or more on record, announced between 26 June 2017 and 6 February 2026, and those 22 rounds add up to $11.56B.

How this list was built: on 2 November 2026, NAUT read every project it holds that has both a dated funding round and a token with tracked price history. That pool is 1,253 projects. 26 of them have a single round of $200M or more. 4 were taken out, leaving the 22 below, and every amount, date and round type in the table is the value NAUT's own database holds for that row. The 4 removals: RICE AI, whose row records a $750M "IDO on TokenFi" while its other 3 rounds sit between $100K and $750K and the published sale was $750,000 (PANews), so the row is a units error flagged for a fix; OneFootball, whose $300M round is a media equity raise with a separate, much smaller token sale; 0G, whose $349.1M figure is 1 tranche of a node sale that ran across 6 launchpads rather than 1 round; and Tezos, where NAUT stores $286M for the July 2017 ICO while every source read for this article puts it at $232M, another row flagged for a fix. Round amounts are what the round raised, never what any single investor put in, and the backer counts below are what NAUT has on file, not the full list of firms in each deal.

What is a TGE in crypto?

The token generation event is the point where a token goes from a line in a document to an asset someone can hold, move and sell. 3 things happen at once, and a deal maker cares about all 3.

  • The supply is minted and allocated: team, investors, treasury, community, liquidity.
  • Distribution starts, through an exchange listing, a launchpad claim, an airdrop or a direct transfer to buyers.
  • The vesting clock starts, so every later unlock date is measured from the TGE.

The TGE meaning gets used 2 ways in practice. Teams say "TGE" for the launch date itself, and they also say it for the sale that funds the launch, which is why a TGE often reads as an ICO, IDO or presale in a funding database. NAUT stores what the round was called, so the distinction survives in the data: of the 22 rounds here, 6 carry a round type that names a token sale (2 typed ICO, 1 IDO, 1 Presale, 1 OTC Sale, 1 "ICO Round on Coinlist"), 5 name an equity instrument (1 Series B, 2 Series C, 1 Series D, 1 Equity Round), and the remaining 11 use a generic label such as "Funding Round", "Private Round", "Strategic Round" or "Ecosystem Fund".

What is a TGE next to an ICO, IDO, presale or private round?

A TGE is the launch event. The other 4 terms describe how the money came in around it. The table says what each term names and who can take part, then a project from this list that NAUT records under that round type.

Term What it names On this list
TGE The token's creation and first distribution, for everyone holding an allocation All 22 have a live token
ICO A public sale of the token by the project, open subject to the project's rules ,
IDO A sale run on a launchpad or DEX, open but often whitelist or staking gated
Presale A sale before the token trades publicly, open and usually tiered by price
Private round Tokens or equity sold to selected investors, funds and strategics by invitation ,

The 2 that matter for outreach are the private round and the launchpad sale. A private round gives you a named cap table to work, and a launchpad sale gives you a dated event to time a pitch against.

Which rounds came before these token launches?

The 22 rows below are ranked by the round amount NAUT holds for each project, largest first. The Round column carries the round type NAUT stores and the date the round was announced. The Peak column is the token's all-time high price and the date it was set, which is the check that proved the token is real and trading rather than announced.

Project Round Raised Peak
ICO, 26 Jun 2017 $4,196.9M $0.78 (28 May 2025)
Ecosystem Fund, 10 May 2022 $725.0M $42.40 (5 Apr 2021)
Private, 12 Jul 2025 $720.0M $0.0088 (14 Sep 2025)
Presale, 13 Jun 2025 $600.0M $0.094 (13 Mar 2026)
ICO, 2025 $550.0M $0.33 (1 Sep 2025)
Equity Round, 22 Mar 2022 $450.0M $26.70 (28 Apr 2022)
Private Round, 20 Mar 2025 $400.0M $8.25 (14 Jun 2024)
Funding Round, 1 Feb 2022 $400.0M $10.38 (28 Oct 2021)
IDO, 30 Aug 2021 $379.3M $4.60 (11 Jul 2024)
Funding Round, 6 Apr 2022 $350.0M $20.44 (16 Jan 2022)
Funding Round, 9 Jun 2021 $314.0M $293.31 (19 Jan 2025)
Series B, 8 Sep 2022 $300.0M $5.35 (4 Jan 2025)
Ecosystem Funding Round, 18 Feb 2025 $270.0M $1.84 (7 Sep 2025)
OTC Sale, 12 Dec 2024 $250.0M $144.96 (21 Nov 2021)
Funding Round, 9 Apr 2024 $225.0M $0.049 (26 Nov 2025)
Funding Round, 29 Nov 2023 $225.0M $1.66 (3 Apr 2024)
Series C, 7 Mar 2022 $200.0M $9.52 (25 Nov 2021)
Strategic Round, 15 Mar 2022 $200.0M $19.92 (26 Jan 2023)
ICO Round on Coinlist, 6 Feb 2026 $200.0M $0.17 (12 Oct 2026)
Funding Round, 21 Sep 2021 $200.0M $198.68 (19 Jun 2021)
Series D, 19 Feb 2022 $200.0M $54.88 (12 Nov 2021)
Series C, 16 Nov 2022 $200.0M $0.32 (16 Jun 2024)

2 rows need their date read carefully. NAUT stores 1 January 2025 for World Liberty Financial, which reads as a year rather than an announcement day, and reporting puts the $550M across 2 token sales, a $300M sale in January 2025 and a $250M sale in March 2025 (Cointelegraph, The Block). The ApeCoin row is the $450M equity round that went to Yuga Labs, the company behind the APE token, at a $4B valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) (CoinDesk, Cointelegraph), so read it as money into the parent company rather than into the DAO.

How much did each project raise before its token launch?

Round amount on NAUT's record, the 10 largest of the 22
  1. Vaulta (prev. EOS)$4196.9M
  2. Flow$725.0M
  3. Pump.fun$720.0M
  4. BlockDAG$600.0M
  5. World Liberty Financial$550.0M
  6. ApeCoin$450.0M
  7. TON$400.0M
  8. Secret Network$400.0M
  9. BitDAO$379.3M
  10. NEAR Protocol$350.0M

Vaulta (prev. EOS) is 36% of the $11.56B on its own: its yearlong ICO ran from June 2017 to June 2018 and raised $4.1B, the largest token sale on record at the time (Yahoo Finance, BeInCrypto). Take that row out and the other 21 rounds average $350.4M.

Does the big round always come before the TGE?

No. 8 of the 22 tokens set their all-time high price before their big round was even announced, which means the money landed on a token that was already trading and already past its peak. Flow peaked at $42.40 on 5 April 2021 and Dapper Labs announced its $725M ecosystem fund 13 months later, on 10 May 2022, with Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Digital Currency Group among the funders (The Block, CoinDesk). The other 7 in that group are TON, Secret Network, NEAR Protocol, Avalanche, Immutable X, Decentralized Social (prev. BitClout) and Helium.

The reverse pattern is the one a founder plans for. Solana raised $314.0M in June 2021, more than 3 years before its $293.31 high of 19 January 2025. The Block reported that round as a private token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital (The Block, CoinDesk). Monad's $225.0M round of 9 April 2024 ran the same way, reported by Fortune on the day it closed (Fortune), 19 months before the token's high of 26 November 2025.

Who backed these rounds, and who runs the teams?

16 of the 22 rounds have at least 1 backer on NAUT's record, 119 backer links in total, and 6 rounds have none on file, which means NAUT holds no firm for them rather than that no firm took part. The 4 rows worth opening first, by what NAUT can show you today:

Anyone listed can ask NAUT to remove their page at https://naut.so/legal/data-deletion.

What this tells a BD team

  • Every crypto token launch on this list has a round of $200M or more behind it, so the budget is real before you pitch.
  • A round type that names a token sale is a dated event you can pitch against. 6 of the 22 rows carry one.
  • A round with backers on file gives you 2 doors instead of 1: the company and the fund that joined it. 16 of the 22 rounds have at least 1.
  • The $200M rows are buyers, not just names. Flow's $725.0M and Somnia's $270.0M are explicitly ecosystem money, which is budget for tooling, audits, market making and events.
  • A token that peaked years before the round, as 8 of these did, is a different conversation than a pre-launch team: the spend is on growth and liquidity rather than on getting to launch.
How a BD team works this list
  1. Pick the money type6 rounds are typed as a token sale, 5 as equity, 11 under a generic label such as Funding Round.
  2. Open the ecosystem rowsFlow at $725.0M and Somnia at $270.0M are ecosystem budgets, so the buyer is a grants or BD lead.
  3. Name 1 personMonad lists Keone Hon as Co-Founder & CEO, and every project page here lists its team.
  4. Check the backer16 of the 22 rounds have a backer on NAUT, so a warm route runs through the fund as well.

What this tells a founder planning a TGE

  • The round and the launch are separate dates, and NAUT's data shows both running in either order. 8 of the 22 tokens peaked before their largest round was announced.
  • A large private round before the launch is the common path at this size: 11 of the 22 rows sit under a generic round label, and 5 name an equity instrument.
  • Your comparables are specific. ZkSync's $200M Series C was "co-led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly" (TechCrunch), and Helium raised its $200M as a Series D equity round (Light Reading), so a $200M ask at this stage has precedent in both shapes.
  • Launchpad distribution is a real route at size. BitDAO's IDO closed at $379.3M on 30 August 2021 and Flying Tulip raised $200.0M through a CoinList ICO round on 6 February 2026.
How a founder uses these 22 rows
  1. Set the shapeDecide whether the raise funds the launch or follows it. 8 of the 22 tokens peaked before the round.
  2. Pick 3 comparablesZkSync and Helium both at $200.0M, Sui at $300.0M for a Series B.
  3. Find the backers16 of the 22 rounds list a backer on NAUT, 119 links in total, and each fund page shows its other rounds.
  4. Ask for the introOpen the fund page, pick 1 partner, and ask for a route through a company it already backs.

Related reading on NAUT: Crypto launchpad list: 55 platforms, 4 that back startups and Strategic round: 49 of 364 crypto deals in 2026, 20 undisclosed.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects?token=launched&limit=100 returns the projects whose token is live, the same pool of 1,253 this list was cut from, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/monad returns 1 project with its team, which is how you get from a round to a named person. Each call costs 5 credits on any paid plan, documented at https://naut.so/docs/api with the plans at https://naut.so/pricing, and the header is Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the people on those pages unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial if you need the channels as well as the names.

What is a TGE FAQ

What does TGE mean in crypto?

TGE stands for token generation event: the moment a project mints its token, distributes it to the team, investors, treasury and community, and starts the vesting clock that every later unlock is measured from. It is also the day the token first trades, which is why all 22 projects in this list have a tracked price history.

What is the difference between a TGE and an ICO?

The TGE is the launch of the token, and an ICO is 1 way to sell it around that launch. Of the 22 NAUT projects here, 2 rounds are typed ICO (Vaulta (prev. EOS) at $4,196.9M in June 2017 and World Liberty Financial at $550.0M in 2025), 1 is typed IDO, 1 Presale, 1 OTC Sale and 1 an "ICO Round on Coinlist", while the other 16 are private, equity or generically labelled rounds.

Which projects raised the most before their token launched?

Ranked by the round amount on NAUT's record as of 2 November 2026: Vaulta (prev. EOS) at $4,196.9M, Flow at $725.0M, Pump.fun at $720.0M, BlockDAG at $600.0M and World Liberty Financial at $550.0M. Fortune reported that the $720M at Pump.fun came from private sales of the company's own tokens (Fortune).

Where can I find the teams behind these 22 token launches and their contact channels?

On NAUT. Each of the 22 projects has a page that lists its team and the backers on its round, 16 of the 22 rounds have at least 1 backer on file, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/monad returns the same data for 1 project in a single call. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial to reach the people behind these rounds.

Sources

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