Listings TBD: seven questions before you pay anyone for an exchange listing
"Listings TBD" is a common line in launch announcements. It usually means the token trades on a DEX first and the centralised listings get negotiated afterwards, often through intermediaries, often under time pressure. That is exactly when teams overpay. Here is what the one fully public listing contract teaches, and the questions it suggests.
The only listing contract anyone can read
Exchanges do not publish tariffs, and listing agreements sit under NDA. One exception exists because US securities law forced it into the open. In an offering circular filed with the SEC, Blockstack disclosed its 2019 services agreement with Binance for the STX listing:
- 833,333 STX paid up front, then three further payments of 833,333 STX on the first, second and third anniversaries, each conditional on STX staying continuously listed.
- $100,000 in cash for Binance marketing services.
- A deposit of $500,000 and 2,500,000 STX, returnable unless specified adverse trigger events occur.
The filing puts no dollar value on the token payments; press at the time valued the first 833,333 STX at about $250,000. What matters more than the totals is the shape: part cash, mostly tokens, renewals tied to staying listed, and a large deposit with conditions attached. Almost every question below comes from that shape.
Seven questions
1. Who is on the contract?
The exchange's own legal entity, or an agent who says they can get you in? If it is an agent, ask for the agreement with the exchange itself before paying anything. An intermediary is not automatically a scam, but you should know which one you are dealing with.
2. When is the money due?
Intermediaries report that at OKX the fee falls due only after listing approval and a signed agreement. Treat that as the benchmark. Anyone asking for payment before approval is asking you to carry their risk.
3. Cash or tokens, and who sells those tokens?
Tier 1 and tier 2 fees are commonly reported as paid in project tokens earmarked for exchange-side marketing. Ask what happens to those tokens, on what schedule, and whether they can reach the market. A fee paid in tokens is also future sell pressure.
4. Is part of it a deposit, and what forfeits it?
In the Blockstack agreement the deposit was the largest single item. Read the trigger events that let the exchange keep it as carefully as the fee itself.
5. Are there renewals?
Blockstack owed three further token payments, each conditional on staying listed. A listing can be a multi-year commitment rather than a one-off fee. Ask whether the price you are quoted is the first year or the whole thing.
6. What liquidity will the venue expect, and from whom?
Mid-tier venues are reported to require market-maker liquidity on top of the fee. For MEXC, intermediaries report a fee of $50,000 to $100,000, a market-maker liquidity requirement of $15,000 to $60,000, and a realistic all-in budget of $60,000 to $110,000 or more. That liquidity usually arrives as a token loan plus a call option, which is a second contract with its own price. We have written about what that option costs.
7. Is anyone selling you a guaranteed CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap listing?
Standard listing on both is free. Both also sell optional fast-track reviews, reported at about $1,000 per request for CoinGecko's Fast Pass and about $5,000 for CMC Priority, which buy a quicker decision rather than an approval. Nobody can sell you a guaranteed listing on either, because neither site sells one. Exchanges say the same about their own process: Binance states that it charges no fees for project evaluations or listing applications, and offers a bounty of up to $5 million for reports of fake listing agents.
A zero fee is not a zero cost
Coinbase's stated policy is that it charges no listing fee. The costs are indirect: legal opinions, compliance documentation, a market-making arrangement. Third-party estimates of that readiness bill run from $150,000 to $500,000, and we grade them as low confidence. For Kraken we hold no reliable cost figure at all, and we would rather say so than guess.
Where the full ranges live
The database holds reported ranges for twenty venues, each figure with its source, its date and a confidence grade, including where sources disagree. If you are holding a quote right now, a Launch check puts it next to those ranges, prices any market-maker terms you were offered, and runs the intermediary through the questions above. No calls, and no promises of a listing.
Sources
- Blockstack PBC offering circular, Part II, filed with the SEC, including the Binance services agreement: sec.gov. Grade 5, primary document.
- Reported fees, token payment and timing, intermediary reporting at listing.help: OKX, Bybit, MEXC. Grade 3.
- Coinbase listing policy and indirect costs: crypto.news, grade 4. Readiness estimate of $150k to $500k: Motion Trade, low confidence.
- CoinGecko listing policy: CoinGecko FAQ; Fast Pass and CMC Priority prices as reported on their support pages, grade 2 until confirmed at source. Binance statement on listing fees and fake agents: Binance, December 2025, grade 4.
Nothing here is legal or investment advice. Reported fees are ranges passed on by intermediaries, not tariffs published by the exchanges. Found an error? Corrections are free and public.