The 13 choices you should get proper, within the order they should occur
1. Entity and jurisdiction — T-12 months
The place is the token being issued from? What construction protects the founding staff? This determination constrains virtually all the things that comes after it. Most groups make it based mostly on their legislation agency’s default advice. They need to make it based mostly on their distribution plan, their change targets, and their investor base.
Entity and jurisdiction determines which geographies you’ll be able to legally distribute to, which exchanges will checklist you, and what compliance obligations apply to your airdrop. Making it too late, or based mostly on the incorrect inputs, forces costly restructuring later. Often at precisely the second you’ll be able to least afford it.
What to have locked: issuer entity confirmed, jurisdiction rationale documented, token classification decided, authorized counsel signed.
2. Token economics, provide design, and FDV self-discipline —
T-10 months
Complete provide, allocation break up, vesting schedules, and the valuation you’re launching at. The vesting schedule for traders can be scrutinized by your group. The unlock cadence will decide your worth chart for the primary 18 months. And the FDV you select will decide whether or not the market has room to understand or nowhere to go however down.
Tokens that launch at inflated valuations relative to their liquidity and natural demand are likely to right sharply and don’t get better. Set your FDV based mostly on what the market can soak up, not what makes your cap desk look good. Hold your preliminary float tight relative to your liquidity depth.
What to have locked: last provide mounted, allocation desk signed off by all stakeholders, cliff and vesting schedule confirmed for each stakeholder group, FDV validated towards comparable launches and real looking buy-side depth.
3. Get each allocation determination in the identical room —
T-9 months
That is crucial determination on this checklist. It is usually the one most groups by no means truly make.
Your airdrop measurement, your change allocations, your market maker mortgage, and your preliminary float will not be 4 separate choices. They’re one determination made 4 instances by 4 completely different individuals who haven’t in contrast notes.
Right here’s what that appears like in follow. Your tokenomics advisor finalizes the airdrop allocation. Your change contact agrees to separate advertising allocation. Your market maker takes a mortgage towards the token to bootstrap liquidity. Your authorized staff indicators off on the construction. Every quantity appears cheap to the one who set it. No one has put them in the identical spreadsheet. On day one, the mixed promote stress from all three hits the market towards a float that was sized assuming every of these numbers existed in isolation. That’s not dangerous luck. That may be a mannequin that was by no means constructed.
Earlier than any allocation is finalized, the folks making every determination have to be in the identical room with a single spreadsheet. The query isn’t whether or not every allocation is affordable in isolation. It’s whether or not they’re collectively absorbable on day one.
If you’re studying this and people 4 conversations have occurred individually, cease. Get the folks chargeable for every one on a name this week and construct the mixed mannequin earlier than something is signed.
What to have locked: all allocation choices reviewed collectively by a single proprietor, mixed day-one promote stress mapped towards real looking liquidity depth.
4. Custody setup — T-8 months
Who holds the keys, underneath what construction, with what signing coverage? MPC vs multisig. Which supplier. Who has entry through which state of affairs. This isn’t a choice to make the week earlier than TGE.
Key ceremonies take time. Onboarding takes time. Most founders underestimate custody till it turns into the blocker. You may have good tokenomics, audited contracts, and excited traders, but when your custody story doesn’t maintain up, all the things stalls. The hole between speaking to a custodian and having custody dwell and examined is persistently longer than groups count on.
Begin this dialog at T-8 months, not T-6 weeks. Should you’re already inside six months, begin it as we speak.
What to have locked: custodian chosen, signing coverage documented, key ceremony accomplished, treasury wallets dwell and examined.
5. Chain and token customary choice — T-8 months
The place are you minting? This determination is everlasting. It impacts the place you’ll be able to checklist, how gasoline works in your customers, what bridges exist, and what your declare infrastructure appears like.
Deploy on the chain the place your customers and product exist already. Launch on chains the place main exchanges already assist native deposits. Launching elsewhere forces customers by means of bridging and will increase abandonment. This determination additionally must occur earlier than your distribution infrastructure is constructed, earlier than your market maker begins work, and earlier than your change conversations progress.
What to have locked: chain confirmed, token contract audited, testnet deployment full.
6. Market maker choice and alignment — T-6 months
Your market maker is a service supplier most of your different distributors have by no means spoken to. Your change contact doesn’t understand how a lot your MM is borrowing. Your authorized counsel doesn’t know the mortgage construction. Your tokenomics advisor has by no means seen the contract. That’s a coordination drawback earlier than it’s a structuring drawback.
Get your market maker into the identical dialog as your change contacts and your distribution staff early sufficient that the mortgage measurement and the change allocations are designed collectively. The mortgage measurement must be in your allocation mannequin from determination 03. If it isn’t, you’re not performed with determination 03.
The contract wants specifics: unfold, uptime, depth minimums, regime-segmented reporting. Any promise of worth targets or quantity ensures is a crimson flag. However the greater danger isn’t a nasty contract. It’s a wonderfully positive contract that no person else in your launch staff is aware of about.
What to have locked: MM chosen, contract signed with granular KPIs, mortgage measurement reviewed alongside whole allocation mannequin, MM briefed on change itemizing timeline.
7. Airdrops and ecosystem distribution — T-6 months
How are tokens going to succeed in recipients? Vesting, claims portal, airdrop, or direct distribution? Who’s constructing it? Who is working it on launch day? These questions have actual operational solutions that have to be locked earlier than TGE, not discovered throughout it.
The declare contract needs to be audited independently from the core protocol. Phishing websites seem inside minutes of an airdrop announcement. The official declare URL must be printed throughout all verified channels earlier than eligibility particulars go public. If claims go dwell earlier than buying and selling begins, recipients promote into skinny DEX liquidity.
Should you’re doing an airdrop, sybil resistance just isn’t non-obligatory. Protocols that apply rigorous eligibility filtering persistently see higher post-launch worth efficiency and extra sturdy group engagement than people who don’t. Design eligibility standards that make farming economically irrational, not simply technically tough.
White-label airdrop portals and compliance-aware token distribution for airdrops and ecosystem incentives are dealt with by means of Kraken 360’s Airdrops and Ecosystem Distribution layer, powered by Magna.
What to have locked: distribution methodology confirmed per allocation kind, infrastructure supplier chosen, sybil resistance strategy designed, load testing accomplished, declare activation timing aligned with itemizing.
8. Trade itemizing coordination — T-12 months to begin,
T-5 months to finalize
Right here is the failure mode. The staff that negotiated the itemizing date has by no means spoken to the staff that set the vesting schedule. The unlock cliff is already mounted. The itemizing date is already booked. A number of months out, somebody places each dates in the identical calendar for the primary time and realizes the primary main unlock lands two weeks after itemizing. By then, neither date is simple to maneuver.
This occurs as a result of itemizing conversations and tokenomics conversations occur in parallel, with completely different folks, and no person owns the intersection. Repair the possession drawback earlier than you begin both dialog.
On timing: groups that begin change conversations 6 to 9 months earlier than launch are already behind. Tier-1 exchanges observe tasks for months earlier than deciding. Relationships matter they usually take time. Begin at T-12 months.
Tier 2 to three exchanges might be engaged 3 to 4 months out. If you negotiate: be prepared to stroll away. Founders who demonstrated alternate options or willingness to delay acquired materially higher phrases. Itemizing charges and token allocations have room. Exclusivity home windows and geographic carve-outs can typically be adjusted. Mannequin each itemizing value as promote stress. Safety deposits needs to be budgeted as doubtlessly unrecoverable.
What to have locked: tier-1 conversations begun at T-12, main change confirmed, itemizing date vary agreed, unlock schedule shared with change, itemizing settlement signed by T-5.
9. Treasury administration — T-4 months
The place does protocol treasury sit? Who controls it? What’s the governance construction? What’s the coverage for treasury deployment, yield, liquidity, grants?
On public blockchains, each token motion is seen. Market contributors don’t distinguish between operational transfers and promoting. Label treasury wallets publicly, talk the aim of great actions earlier than they happen, and assume that any unexplained switch can be narrated by third events within the least beneficial mild.
Set up treasury diversification mechanisms, OTC relationships, and structured conversion methods earlier than TGE whereas phrases are favorable. Most groups defer this till after the token is up. By the point they resolve to behave, circumstances have normally moved towards them.
What to have locked: treasury construction confirmed, signatories named, preliminary treasury deployment coverage agreed, diversification mechanisms established.
10. Compliance and jurisdiction evaluate — T-4 months
What geographies are you limiting? What KYC/AML necessities apply to your distribution? Are there MiCA implications when you’ve got EU publicity? Who owns the compliance query?
That final query is the one most groups can’t reply clearly. The compliance proprietor is normally “the lawyer, form of.” That’s not an proprietor. It’s a spot with a reputation hooked up to it. One particular person wants to carry this with actual accountability, not shared accountability that dissolves underneath stress.
What to have locked: restricted geographies checklist confirmed, KYC/AML necessities documented, compliance proprietor named.
11. Stakeholder communication plan — T-3 months
Who will get notified about what, in what order, by means of what channel? Traders, staff, group, press, change contacts. The sequence issues greater than the content material. Getting it incorrect means your traders hear about their unlock on Twitter earlier than you’ve despatched them an e mail. Your itemizing announcement drops earlier than your staff is briefed. Your group seems like an afterthought.
Write the notification plan earlier than TGE. Not the week earlier than. Not on the day.
What to have locked: stakeholder map full, communication sequence written, pre-approved message templates prepared for unlock bulletins, itemizing bulletins, and airdrop activation.
12. Token lifecycle and unlock coordination — T-3 months
Unlocks fail when staff members promote independently, with out coordination, in ways in which amplify market influence. It is a coordination failure, not a market failure. Evaluation of tens of hundreds of unlock occasions persistently reveals staff unlocks as probably the most disruptive class, not as a result of the tokens are being bought, however as a result of they’re being bought by a number of people with completely different monetary objectives and no coordinated strategy.
The answer isn’t a greater vesting schedule. It’s a plan that each vesting stakeholder has agreed to earlier than the primary cliff hits: who communicates the unlock to the group, who coordinates execution timing, who manages the OTC relationships that hold staff members off the open market concurrently.
Value declines round unlocks usually start 30 days earlier than the occasion, as markets worth in anticipated promoting. By the point the unlock arrives, the narrative is already forming. Your communication plan wants to begin a month out, not on the day.
Token vesting, allocation administration, ecosystem incentives, and managed unlock schedules for traders and groups are managed by means of Kraken 360’s Token Lifecycle Infrastructure, powered by Magna.
What to have locked: unlock communication proprietor named, coordinated execution plan agreed with all vesting stakeholders, OTC relationships in place, public pockets labelling performed.
13. T-7 operational readiness examine — T-7 days
One week out: run the total course of finish to finish. Take a look at transactions. Confirm custody signing. Affirm declare portal load. Test that each vendor has obtained each piece of knowledge they want. Affirm treasury multisig signatories can be found for the essential window.
The launches that go easily have this checklist. Those that don’t want they’d.
What to have locked: all programs examined, all distributors confirmed, go/no-go evaluate accomplished, rollback plan documented, multisig signatories confirmed obtainable.
The sequence is all the things
The groups that get TGE proper aren’t improvising. They made the identical choices as everybody else. They only made them in the correct order, with the correct folks within the room, early sufficient to matter.
The sting comes from sequencing and coordination.
Get these proper, on this order, and your launch will replicate it.
Sources
Keyrock, December 2024: From Locked to Liquidity: What 16,000+ Token Unlocks Educate Us
Kraken 360, March 2026: Pre-TGE Playbook Components 1, 2 and three
Zak Cole and Quantity Group, January 2026: The Truthful Launch Handbook
Magna, April 2025: Token Launch Authorized and Ops Prep Information
a16z crypto, April 2024: Operational Tips for Token Launches
Arrakis Finance, February 2026: A Sensible Information to TGE in 2026
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