One of the easiest ways to get your token listed on an exchange is to use the Coinist Exchange Listing Service. We have a huge database of exchange partners we work with to help get you listed quickly. You can sign up for the exchange listing service here.

We’re not sure how you approached your token creation process but we assumed you’ve followed our Guide to Launching an ICO, and now you’ve got your own cryptocurrency. Hopefully you’ve submitted your project to our ICO calendar and are now getting lots of exposure by being listed on our website. Congrats! Now it’s time to get down to business. One of the key thresholds for new coins is getting listed on an exchange. Even if you’ve launched your token on a decentralized exchange, it always helps to add it to more exchanges. It makes buying and selling the coin leaps and bounds easier, as well as conferring legitimacy. We’ll breakdown the process of getting a coin listed on a major exchange.

Exchanges are sprouting up almost as fast as cryptocurrencies these days (in some cases, like Bancor, the coins ARE the exchange). We’ll cover two of the most prominent exchanges today and their criteria. Bittrex and Poloniex, both offer a wide assortment of coins to purchase. Poloniex appears to be a little more open with their criteria, so we’ll start there.

Straight from their websites: “We don’t have a definitive set of criteria as each project is unique. We listen to the community and select projects that we believe are unique, innovative, and that our users would be interested in trading.” If your coin isn’t complete vaporware and has real demand, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem getting it listed. Poloniex cautions they cannot list coins that resemble securities. Their website explicitly mentions The Howey Test. Assuming you read our Guide to Launching an ICO, you know the importance of the Howey Test. But just in case you need a refresher: The Howey Test was a precedent from a 1946 Supreme Court case. The ruling gave the SEC guidelines as to what could be considered a security. So, make sure your coin doesn’t resemble one.

The leads or other developers of your coin must have fully verified accounts on Poloniex. With new coins trying to get listed daily, it would be arduous for the Poloniex team to manually verify the identity of everyone submitting. Poloniex does not require or accept payment for listing, so you don’t have to budget for that to get your coin on the exchange. The process is relatively simple.

Bittrex is bigger and better-reviewed, and subsequently, has a more stringent process (Poloniex is currently taking heavy flack on social media, for lack of customer support and inability to withdraw user funds). Bittrex’s website states their team limits themselves to only a handful of new coin releases a week, to pick out the best. Again, this shouldn’t be a problem assuming you have a good token with a useful idea and a great team.

Bittrex offers an interesting opportunity: token teams looking for additional marketing opportunities can have their coin “spotlighted,” or prominently featured on the site. The cost is 3 bitcoins.

Bittrex features a prominent disclaimer that the site cannot back currencies formed for illegal purposes, like drug sales or gambling. So don’t do that. Like Poloniex, it also strictly forbids any token that could be considered a security – “such as digital currencies that promise/market profits or represent shares of a company,” per their website. Don’t do that either.

Unlike Poloniex, Bittrex doesn’t guarantee that they won’t charge a compliance fee. Their justification is that many new currencies are extremely complex to understand, and require proper time to research before listing. This would presumably be a case-by-case basis.

Submitting a request on Bittrex requires all of the following info:

– Your coin name: self-explanatory.

– Enhanced Verified Account: a team member or shareholder holding more than 10% of the company, must have their identity verified on Bittrex. As with Poloniex, this saves the team time vetting.

– Description of your coin: What makes your currency different than the hundreds of others floating around? The Bittrex website warns “If your ANN thread only has coin specs on it, you are not going to get listed on Bittrex.” Have a clear mission and pitch.

– Coin Trading symbol: a 3-5 letter ticker that will represent your coin forever. No numbers allowed.

– A coin logo: Must be submitted in PNG format with a transparent background. Bitcoin’s orange tilted B is ubiquitous worldwide. You should have a slick-looking logo.

-A launch date: if your coin will or already ran an ICO.

-Github link: Bittrex requires the source code for their due diligence. They will not accept binary.

Additional questions required are: the max money supply, other exchanges you’re listed on, the official blockchain explorer, the TxFee, the results of a premine (if there was one), how money was raised, and links to your company’s social media.

ETH tokens require a few additional notes. If you’re launching a token through Ethereum and had the code on your smart contract reviewed, Bittrex wants to see those results, as well as your smart contract address.

In addition to all that required info, Bittrex recommends (but doesn’t mandate) publicly disclosing your identity and having your coin source code checked by a trusted community member. If you launched the coin via ICO, Bittrex needs details about that as well. The premine info, how much was raised, the publicly accessible information at launch time, and so on. This all matters; Bittrex warns that a $5000 compliance fee may be charged if enough due diligence is necessary.

Other smaller exchanges like Evercoin require information not listed above. Evercoin’s submission form allows for easier listing for ERC20 tokens. No separate wallet is necessary, as all ERC20 tokens can use the same wallet. If your coin isn’t ERC20, they need a GitHub link to download the code necessary to build a wallet.

The process of listing a coin on an exchange varies significantly by the site in question and your unique currency. But in general, a strong team with a better product that is upfront with information should have a relatively simple time getting listed on Poloniex, Bittrex, or wherever other exchange you’d like. If you need help getting your project listed on exchanges we can help. Simply sign up for our Listing Exchange Service.

As a reminder, if you have a token and you’re looking for additional exposure, please consider listing your token on our site.