Written by: Matt Law, Outlier Ventures
Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News
A successful token launch does not begin with the publication of a white paper, nor does it end with listing on an exchange. It is a comprehensive strategy, and most entrepreneurs are often underprepared.
Over the past decade, we have assisted hundreds of startups through this journey. Therefore, we have launched this token series content: to provide practical operational guidelines for entrepreneurs, helping them launch and manage token projects with confidence in the current market.
In this article, Matt Law will delve into the preparations before token launch, covering aspects such as product attractiveness, token economic model, legal framework construction, market timing selection, exchange cooperation strategies, and promotional activity execution.
If you are planning to launch a token project this year, this article will be your starting point.
Two Essential Elements for All Token Projects
To attract the attention of top exchanges, two points are most critical: product attractiveness and a genuine community base.
Product Attractiveness: The Most Valuable Signal
Exchanges like Binance and OKX will prioritize on-chain activity and the number of real users. These indicators are difficult to fake and therefore particularly important. This means that the project needs to have a large number of real users and demonstrate a genuine market demand for its solution. You should clarify core indicators early on and develop growth strategies around these indicators.
Community Scale: Social Validation Remains Important
Although there may be instances of inflated numbers, having a large user base on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, and Discord can still serve as social validation, proving the project's relevance and importance. Secondary exchanges typically require projects to have at least 50,000 followers on X or Telegram before considering cooperation. You need to develop a community growth plan and implement it early. Ideally, it should be launched before engaging in deep communication with important partners to avoid being labeled as a "small project".
Exchanges often view tokens as products to attract users and generate revenue through trading fees, which also explains the importance of community scale. The teams responsible for listing review often use follower count as a primary assessment indicator.
Token Issuance Preparation: Founders' Checklist
Before publicly announcing your token issuance plan, ensure you can answer the following questions:
Budget: The era of easily raising funds through token issuance is long gone. In fact, to launch a token on a secondary exchange, you'll need at least $500,000 or more. This budget primarily covers marketing activity expenses (paying vendor fees, paid media placement, etc.), and any fiat or stablecoin involved in market-making agreements or exchange cooperation agreements.
Product Status: Is your product launched? Does it have verifiable market attractiveness? Ideally, the product should be live with a certain user base, or have a clear plan to attract thousands of users.
Legal Structure: Have you established a token issuance entity? Has a law firm reviewed the token economic model and issued a legal opinion stating it does not constitute a security? This is a hard requirement for most centralized exchanges, as they prioritize avoiding listing securities tokens.
Security Assurance: Do you have a plan for smart contract audits for both the application and the token itself? Note that the audit process is time-consuming, especially with longer scheduling for new clients.
Community Growth Plan: Do you have a plan to expand the community to around 100,000 followers?
Why Token Issuance Needs to Balance "Appearance" and "Substance"
For a successful token issuance, communication is key. The most successful token issuances often tell two parallel stories:
Appearance level: Demonstrate social validation, growth momentum, and maintain a good public image.
Substantive level: The real state and performance of the product, tangible market attractiveness, and a solid infrastructure.
Simply put, the founders' job is to narrow the gap between these two.
Both appearance and substance are crucial before and after TGE. Establishing credibility and reliability through continuous communication before the issuance is critical. A practical approach is to release 2-3 positive news items weekly for about 8 weeks before TGE, and continue for about 8 weeks after. TGE is merely the starting point for building project confidence over the next few years.
Beyond focusing on follower count, consider how many real users are genuinely interested in the project and might participate in token subscription. It is recommended to establish a potential user list and implement a qualification review process (which may include KYC verification) to clarify the potential buyer group. Thousands of completed KYCs can enhance project confidence, while only around 250 might indicate a need to postpone the issuance. Compliant token sales usually require KYC (either directly or through Launchpad platforms/exchanges), but airdrops rarely require it. However, some projects implement KYC when claiming rewards, which can cause user dissatisfaction.
[The translation continues in the same manner for the rest of the text.]The general consensus is to choose the first half of the market's upward cycle for issuance rather than the latter half. This can leverage positive market sentiment for better market performance and allow earlier token unlocking, reducing late-stage selling pressure. A common phenomenon is that the preparation time for issuance is often longer than expected, with many projects believing "we'll be able to launch in two months," but still remaining in the same stage weeks later.
Market Competition
The current market is highly competitive, with numerous projects developing or planning token issuance. CoinMarketCap tracks about 40,000 new tokens daily, leading to fierce competition for user attention. The "arms race" of product attractiveness and community size becomes key to breaking through. Even platforms like Gate, which focus on new coin listings, can only list around 100 tokens monthly, which is still just a small portion of the many projects awaiting issuance.
Stakeholder Consensus
The rise of meme coins reflects market dissatisfaction with FDV (fully diluted valuation) tokens from previous private rounds. People are more inclined to seek quick profit opportunities in decentralized exchanges (DEX) and meme coins (the "wealth creation effect"). Launchpad platforms are also adjusting strategies, avoiding projects with FDV exceeding $20 million, as users have previously suffered losses. Anti-VC sentiment further fuels the meme coin boom. Although meme coins are seen as a "PVP (player vs. player)" game (where most will incur losses), the market expects a future return to fundamentals and long-term value thinking, though the exact timing remains unclear.
Private Sale Timing
If planning a private sale for seed round investors, it needs to be completed as early as possible before issuance. Investor lock-up periods overlapping with public offerings may hinder the project's momentum. It is not ideal to conduct private sales at a discounted price (with lock-up) while letting others buy at higher prices in the market. To ensure stability upon launch, private sales should end early before issuance, allowing enough bullish buyers to support the initial circulating market value.
Conclusion
Token issuance is one of the riskiest moves for Web3 startups: the process is complex, competitive, and leaves no room for error. However, if executed properly, its transformative effect can be equally significant. With thorough preparation and a reasonable strategy, your project can stand out in the noisy market and achieve a launch with lasting momentum.
