Original source: Ash From Signum Capital
Translated by: Odaily Planet Daily Wenser (@wenser 2010 )
Editor's note: Token listing has always been one of the most concerned events for various projects in the cryptocurrency industry, because it often means more liquidity, more holders and a more active trading market. But as Haseeb, managing partner of Dragonfly, said, "Many founders try to launch tokens during the bull market, but these tokens still have to go through the bear market in the end." Therefore, no matter whether it is a bull or bear market, the more preparations before listing the coin, the better.
Odaily Planet Daily will compile the CEX listing strategy manual shared by Signum Capital investor Ash in this article (with minor changes) for reference by crypto project founders.
CEX Coin Listing: A “Common Mission” for Investors and Founders
Note: This manual is specifically for founders who plan to launch tokens in the near future and prepare for listing.
Typically, when investors discuss portfolio value-added, they can not only introduce projects to other venture capital institutions and angel investors to obtain financing, but should also really work with the founders to develop a successful strategy, one of the key points of which is to achieve token listing on a centralized exchange (CEX).
The guidelines for this token are mainly divided into the following five parts:
1. Token listing documents
2. Business negotiations with CEX and market makers
3. Community and social media promotion
4. Media Coverage
5. Other preparations
Before we get started, it’s important to remind founders that it’s crucial to prepare a good fundraising plan before launching a token strategy.
A project founder who is preparing to go public needs to at least ensure that the following matters have been prepared:
• Reserve a certain budget for token listing (usually higher fees during bull markets) and market makers (reserved shares);
• Develop strategies to achieve the goal of obtaining funding from large CEX VC arms (e.g. Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures), as this can increase the chances of listing;
• Build strong links with venture capital firms and angel investors who have strong network in the industry.
Five Steps to Listing on CEX
Specifically, the steps involved in listing CEX tokens include:
Step 1: Prepare documents for token listing
In order to smoothly launch the token, a crypto project needs to prepare several documents in advance. Here are the main requirements for CEX listing:
• White Paper: The main content includes a detailed description of the project vision and mission, protocol mechanism, team and roadmap.
• Token Economic Model: Includes a detailed introduction to the token, its main uses, vesting schedule, and related information on long-term distribution.
• Protocol security and token audit: conducted by trusted audit providers or security companies, security agencies.
• Legal Documents: Legal documents regarding the operating entity behind the project and legal opinions from industry lawyers.
• Investment and financing documents: recent latest valuation and shareholding structure table, etc.
• CEX listing form: Complete the token listing form unique to each CEX, which usually includes company registration information, financial data, team information, token economic model, protocol mechanism, community and project impact description, and legal documents.
Step 2: Business negotiations with CEX and market makers
1. Centralized Exchange (CEX)
• Listing Fees: Every CEX listing involves a listing fee, typically ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 (sometimes more) or requiring 5%-20% of the total token supply.
• Additional fees: Listed projects may also need to pay technical fees (such as project audits, token integration), marketing fees and a certain amount of deposit.
• Partnerships and listing on multiple exchanges: Establishing partnerships with exchanges and applying for listing on multiple CEXs can increase the chances of success to a certain extent and facilitate cooperation negotiations. In addition, cooperation and marketing promotion with DeFi wallets of major CEXs can also help.
2. Market Maker
For projects that want to be listed on an exchange, it is necessary to introduce market makers - they can help project tokens maintain price stability and ensure that tokens have healthy liquidity.
Market makers are generally divided into two categories:
• The first one adopts the “loan + option model”: the market maker borrows tokens from the project party to provide liquidity to the market, and is granted subscription options.
• The second type adopts the “retention fee + profit-sharing model”: that is, the project party pays the market maker-related market making fees every month to ensure the liquidity of the token.
@0xLouisT and @minjung_eth have done relevant research on market makers. The following content can be used as a reference:
• https://x.com/0x LouisT/status/1808489954869133497 …
• https://prestolabs.io/research/market-making-predatory-or-essential…
Step 3: Community and social media promotion
Building a strong and active community is crucial for a crypto project. Here are some suggestions:
• The social media trinity: stay active on Discord, Telegram/WeChat, and X (Twitter);
• Community Management: Hire outstanding community managers to manage Discord and Telegram groups, and drive execution of partnerships and localization strategies through ecosystem and business development heads.
• Active participation of multiple accounts: Ensure users’ right to know about the development of the project through the main account and the founder account, and promote the product reasonably. If you prepare a dedicated intern account or a spoof account to gain maximum attention, the marketing effect will be better.
• Flexible use of task platforms: Use task platforms such as Galxe, Zealy and Layer 3 to achieve community growth and community building.
• Make good use of airdrops: Airdrop rewards to core users to increase their loyalty (although the sharp increase in the number of robot scripts and fake accounts has made this strategy more difficult to implement).
Step 4: Media Coverage
For project owners, an integrated marketing plan is essential to ensure that basically all angles are adequately covered:
• Industry media: Publish on major crypto news portals such as @TheBlock, @Foresight_News, @BlockBeatsAsia, @PANewsCN (and of course, @OdailyChina).
• KOL promotion: Seek paid promotion cooperation from KOLs or provide them with investment opportunities at a lower valuation in exchange for marketing exposure (such as articles, videos, and self-media channel promotion).
• Marketing Agency: Work with top marketing agencies to develop professional and comprehensive marketing strategies. Here are some of the partners Ash has worked with, such as @cryptofreedman and @snow 949494 from @hypepartners, @JiraiyaReal from @Tailored Web3, @ciaobelindazhou from @ShardDXB, etc.
• Research articles: Publish in-depth research articles through companies with a certain industry reputation to increase project recognition. Such as @Delphi_Digital, @MessariCrypto, @blockworksres, @Ian_Unsworth, @kairos_res, @Steve_4P, @FourPillarsFP, @blocmatesdotcom, @asxn_r, @Shoalresearch
Step 5: Other preparations
As a qualified crypto project party, the founder needs to ensure that the project token can be listed on the main industry platform and be seen by more people, which mainly includes:
• CoinGecko/CoinMarketCap: Token listing.
• Dexscreener: Token information aggregation display.
• DefiLlama: Project launched.
• Dune Analytics: A dashboard platform that displays on-chain relevant metrics and user analytics.
• DeBank: Get protocol support.
• Token Terminal: Data partner.
Finally, I want to make it clear that every token launch is unique and a one-size-fits-all approach generally does not work. There is much more to a successful token launch than what is covered here - the information shared today is just the tip of the iceberg.
Finally, the translator would like to borrow the words from the cover of World Geographic Magazine as the ending words: Stay Humble, Stay Foolish.
