Token listing strategy playbook 📔 Founders especially, save this if you are planning to launch a token soon. When discussing portfolio value add, it’s not just making introductions to other VCs/angels to fill up the fundraising round but actually getting hands-on with founders to devise a proper strategy for success. One of it includes a proper token listing strategy on trusted centralised exchanges (CEX). - - - - - - - - - Here is a high-level guide I’ve written to help you and your project navigate the murky waters of getting your token listed on a major CEX. I’ll break it down into 5 sections: • Token listing documents • CEX and market maker negotiations • Community • Media coverage • Misc Before diving deeper, it is imperative to have a good fundraising plan before launching a token strategy. Make sure you nail the following: • Carve out a budget to pay for exchange listing fees (gets higher in a bull market) and market making (retainer) fees. • Strategise on how to fundraise from the venture arm of large CEXes (@BinanceLabs, @cbventures, @OKX_Ventures) as it improves the chances of listing. • Build relationships with VCs/ angels who have strong connections in the industry. - - - - - - - - - 1. Token listing documents In anticipation of a token launch, projects will need to prepare a few documents beforehand and they are the main requirements for a CEX listing. This includes: • A well written whitepaper (detailing the project’s vision and mission, explaining the protocol mechanism, team, roadmap). • Tokenomics (token details, utility, vesting schedule, sustainable distribution). • Protocol security and token audit from a trusted audit provider. • Legal documents (entity documents, legal opinion from a lawyer). • Investment and fundraising documents (last valuation raised at, cap table). • Completed CEX listing forms (each CEX will have its own unique token listing form to fill up —> generally includes company incorporation, financial data, team, tokenomics, protocol mechanism, community and traction, legal documents). - - - - - - - - - 2. CEX and market maker negotiations (a) CEX These days, every CEX listing involves a listing fee and these varies from paying in stablecoin USD terms to giving out a % of the token total supply. From our discussions, expect to pay a fee between $200k - $500k (sometimes more) or give out 5-20% of total token supply. Apart from listing fees, projects can also be expected to pay for technical fees (audit, token integration), marketing fees and security deposits. There is a backlog on every CEX now as more and more projects vie for a token listing. Building relationships + connections with the right people can expedite your success. It is also crucial for founders to apply for listings on multiple CEXes to increase the chances of securing a token listing + use it for negotiations. Good to have a collaboration + marketing campaign with DeFi wallets of various CEXes for more eyeballs. (b) Market Makers (MM) Onboarding MMs is a necessary part of the listing process to maintain price stability and ensure healthy liquidity for the token. MMs typically fall into 2 categories: • Loan + option model: MM borrow tokens from the project to provide liquidity and are granted call options (the right to purchase the token at a cheaper price) • Retainer + profit share model: project pay the MM monthly fees to maintain liquidity @0xLouisT and @minjung_eth did some good research on MMs: • x.com/0xLouisT/statu… • prestolabs.io/research/marke… - - - - - - - - - 3. Community and socials Form a strong (almost cult-like) and engaged community who will serve as your first set of users and word of mouth marketers. Some tips: • Discord <> Telegram/WeChat <> Twitter —> nail the trifecta of social media. • Hire good community managers to manage Discord and Telegram groups, ecosystem/ BD leads to secure partnerships and localisation strategies (e.g. APAC lead/ head of marketing in Korea). • Be active on Twitter from the main account + founder’s account to keep users informed with project updates + evangelise the product. Bonus if the project has a dedicated intern account/shitposter to get maximum mindshare (@intern <> @monad_xyz, @HugoMartingale <> @Polymarket). • Integrate with major questing platforms for another source of GTM (e.g. @Galxe, @zealy_io and @layer3) and building communities. • Founders need to be constantly evangelising their project and be excited about what they are building. (Study @keoneHD <> @monad_xyz, @Punk9277 <> @_kaitoai, @SmokeyTheBera <> @berachain, @taran <> @stix). • Airdrops to power users + making them rich is one of the best ways to form a loyal set of users (albeit a bit hard these days with industrial farms and sybils). - - - - - - - - - 4. Media coverage Crypto Twitter (CT) is inundated daily with memes, shitposts, charts, project updates, threads. Projects need a well-designed + comprehensive marketing plan to ensure all angles are adequately covered. High level strats: • Publishing on major crypto news portals to get maximum coverage from publications like @TheBlock__, @Foresight_News, @BlockBeatsAsia and @panews. • KOL marketing which usually involves paid promotion or letting them invest at a lower valuation in exchange for marketing content (threads, articles, videos, channel shoutout). • Outsourcing to top tier marketing agencies. Some of the good ones I have had the pleasure of working with includes @snow949494, @cryptofreedman <> @hypepartners, @JiraiyaReal <> @TailoredWeb3, @ciaobelindazhou <> @ShardDXB. • Publishing deep research articles: apart from the big bois like @Delphi_Digital, @MessariCrypto, @blockworksres, there are many high quality firms that can be used like @Ian_Unsworth <> @kairos_res, @Steve_4P <> @FourPillarsFP, @blocmates, @asxn_r and @Shoalresearch. - - - - - - - - - 5. Misc • @coingecko / @CoinMarketCap token listing. • @dexscreener enhanced token information. • @DefiLlama project listing. • @DuneAnalytics dashboards to showcase relevant on-chain metrics and user analysis. • @DeBankDeFi supported protocol. • @tokenterminal data partnership. - - - - - - - - - - I'll caveat this by saying that every token launch is unique and a cookie-cutter approach is usually NGMI. A successful launch obviously involves way more than what I’ve covered here - this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re working on a new project and want to learn more about the ins and outs of launching a token, feel free to reach out to @signum_capital or myself as we’re always looking to back bullish founders. Can’t leak too much alpha here :)
