Changpeng (CZ) Zhao has revealed Binance Launchpad experienced its highest demand ever with the Celer Network token sale. Indeed, Celer Network’s token sale sold out of 597,014,925 CELR tokens in a mere 17 minutes and 35 seconds on the Binance Launchpad, but not without any issues. As a result, Celer Network raised about $4 million in the deal. Celer Network previously attracted $30 million to its coffers in private fundraising, a Binance spokesperson confirmed to CCN.com.

CZ said there were caching problems that led investors to believe they had to log in again when all they really needed to do was refresh the page. The mass confusion coupled with unprecedented demand left tens of thousands of would-be investors out in the cold.

Celer Network, which is a layer-two scaling platform for off-chain payment transactions and smart contracts, is one of only a handful of token sales to have been selected for Binance Launchpad so far, all of which have been a resounding success for token issuers in 2019.

Capacity and Caching Issues Plague the Platform

The deal should provide a boost to Binance Coin (BNB) also, considering it was the only cryptocurrency in which the CELR price was denominated (1 CELR = 0.000434 BNB / 0.0067 USD using a BNB price of 15.4325 USD). Nonetheless, BNB coin was fractionally lower at the time of publication. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the frustration investors felt from being left out of the deal.

CZ has been transparent about the fact that the company is learning from each one of the token sales unfolding on its platform, which is a coveted place for blockchain startups to raise funds these days. He has said they are making adjustments along the way. Out of 39,003 users who wanted to buy CELR tokens, only slightly more than 3,100 investors were able to do so, as a result of which “35,000 people will be somewhat unhappy,” as CZ put it.

This time, Binance Launchpad suffered “capacity/caching issues” with, of all things, an “upgraded version.” CZ vowed that they will “keep working on it for a better experience in the future.”

still had capacity/caching issues with this "upgraded" version. Will keep working on it for a better experience in the future. STATS: 39003 people tried to buy, 3129 people got some. 35000 people will be somewhat unhappy. pic.twitter.com/opJnNOeuhA — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 19, 2019

Binance Launchpad is exploring taking a different tack the next time around, the transparency of which users should appreciate.

We *may* try a different approach next time, a BNB holding allocation model. Still thinking about it… — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 19, 2019

Binance set the minimum and maximum thresholds in the token sale, the latter of which should have paved the way for more investors to participate.

“Launchpad participants were able to purchase between 2985.074626865672 CELR tokens (the minimum amount eligible for purchase) and 223,880.597 CELR tokens (the maximum amount).”

Despite these parameters, many investors came away with a bad taste in their mouth from the experience. On Twitter, disgruntled followers complained about the issues ranging from the Launchpad’s facial recognition ID verification technology to being frozen out of the token sale. North American users took issue with the fact that their jurisdiction was blocked from buying CELR tokens, though this was made clear in the terms.

CZ has maintained that the token sales on Binance Launchpad are fair but that they do involve a stroke of luck for investors.

In addition to Celer Network, Binance Launchpad has also supported BitTorrent and Fetch.AI token sales in 2019, which sold out in about 13 and 11 minutes, respectively.