How to Get Coins Before They’re Listed?

Launchpads

One of the primary ways of initial coin offering before it hits the open market is via launchpads.

A launchpad acts as an intermediary platform between projects and public investors, ensuring transparency and fairness of token distribution to participants.

Three Types of Launchpads

Currently, there are three types of token sales: IDO, IEO, and ICO. Each of them has its own kind of launchpads. Let’s dive into them.

IDO

Initial DEX Offering platforms carry out decentralized token offerings. Examples include such launchpads as DAO Maker, ChainGPT Pad, Seedify, and many others.

The terms for conducting and receiving allocation vary on each platform. These may involve staking native tokens of the platforms or holding a certain number of coins. You can always find more detailed instructions on CryptoRank.

IEO

Initial Exchange Offering platforms are probably the most well-known launchpads to the general public — these are centralized exchanges like Binance Launchpad, OKX Jumpstart, and others. Usually, you’ll need to lock up stablecoins or the exchange’s native token to get an allocation.

ICO

Initial Coin Offering was once the most popular way of initial public token sale, but now there are only a few platforms left, namely CoinList, Tokensoft, and Republic. Allocation conditions may differ for each project.

Pay Attention to This!

Before participating, it’s essential to carefully study all the conditions, especially vesting. In most cases, you don’t receive all your tokens during a TGE, but only a small portion. Make sure to check previous funding rounds of the project, as this will give you an idea of how your price differs from earlier investors’ prices.

Another thing to look out for is the presence of KYC in 90% of pre-sales on launchpads, and also pay attention to restrictions, since citizens of some countries are often not allowed to participate.

Participation in token sales can be very profitable, because it allows you to buy coins before they’re listed on major exchanges. However, not every project will perform well and bring you returns, so DYOR before investing. CryptoRank is always there to help you, providing the largest database of token sales.

Pre-Markets

A pre-market is an OTC trading platform designed solely for trading new tokens before their official launch. It enables buyers and sellers to set their prices and negotiate deals, securing desired quotes and liquidity in advance.

Basically, you sell/buy a futures/option on tokens or points by locking up funds with a guarantor until a specific event (like an airdrop or TGE). After the event, the seller gets the deposit, the buyer receives tokens/points, and the guarantor also earns a commission from the transaction. And if someone fails to fulfill obligations, the frozen funds are confiscated.

What Types of Pre-Market Platforms Exist?

There are several types of platforms, so let’s break down their differences.

Pre-Markets From CEXs

Exchanges like KuCoin, Bybit, and Gate.io regularly conduct pre-market trading of popular tokens. For instance, you could find tokens like TIA, PYTH, AEVO, STRK, MERL, and others on them.

The exchange acts as the guarantor. The user finds the token of interest, places an offer they’re willing to buy the token for, and if the seller accepts their offer, the funds are frozen on the exchange until the token is listed.

Decentralized Pre-Markets

At the moment, there’s only one such platform — Whales Market. Smart contract serves as the guarantor, and a distinctive feature is trading with points, like EigenLayer.

Buyers and sellers deposit and freeze funds until the TGE, and there’s a 24-hour window after it for transactions. Soon, Whales Market is also expected to add support for the WL market. The platform charges commissions for all transactions: 2.5% for pre-market tokens and points, and 0.5% for OTC transactions. Commissions are distributed among token stakers and are also used for token purchases and burning.

Futures Pre-Markets

If you’re a risk lover, decentralized derivative exchanges like Aevo and Hyperliquid offer futures on tokens not yet available in the market. You can trade future tokens from LayerZero, Blast, and Friend.tech.

Benefits of Pre-Markets

Pre-markets offer you more than just buying or selling allocations — they give you insight into the market’s expectations for those assets. For example, Friend.tech points are currently trading at $4.64, while points of the newly announced Renzo Protocol on Binance Launchpool are at $0.125.

Pre-markets provide an excellent opportunity to acquire assets before their token listings, which can be a winning strategy. However, keep in mind that the pre-market is quite illiquid, and predicting long-term prices in the volatile crypto market is considered high-risk. Always DYOR before investing.

Conclusion

One of the main rules of making money in crypto is to find a gem before anyone else. Finding gems is a tricky task, but figuring out where to get them is even trickier. Apart from airdrop hunting, launchpads and pre-markets can come to the rescue. These are interesting tools, but it’s crucial to understand how to interact with them properly. CryptoRank is here to help!