In 2025, centralized exchanges face a new set of challenges and risks in listing new tokens.
Entirely new narratives and types of ecosystems, such as GameFi and SocialFi, have emerged. Meanwhile, speculative meme coins have risen to prominence as platforms like Solana’s Pump.fun have made launching new tokens easier and more democratic than ever before.
Amid this rapidly evolving space, traders and investors understandably want to be able to access new cryptocurrencies as soon as possible. This may be great for peer-to-peer decentralized exchanges (DEXs), but centralized exchanges “face inherent limitations when it comes to capturing new narratives,” according to a recent research report by crypto exchange Gate.io.
Centralized exchanges have to scrupulously provide adequate liquidity and security for clients for every token they list—no matter how novel the project—and are legally expected to conform to strict Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) rules.
“Listing new tokens typically requires a dedicated token listing team to conduct thorough due diligence before scheduling a listing while also meeting regulatory requirements,” the researchers added.
Ensuring security
With speed of the essence in listing new tokens, centralized exchanges need to find effective ways to shield their users from potential risks.
Gate.io explained some of the main criteria that their team looks at before making new additions to its listings. These include conducting technical analysis into the token’s smart contract code and evaluating potential vulnerabilities or attack vectors—going far beyond simple superficial assessments of a token’s popularity.
“Two fundamental indicators are privileged functions and minting risks,” according to Gate.io. Privileged functions are contract functions that give administrators excessive control, enabling extractive practices like arbitrary minting or trading suspension.
Gate.io’s team also looks to see if there are caps on token minting in place, helping to protect users from unnecessarily high token inflation. Another aspect of due diligence that Gate.io’s team emphasizes is the importance of assessing the distribution of a project’s token holders.
By tracking the distribution of holding addresses and monitoring addresses with large positions, the exchange is able to “assess the token’s degree of decentralization and evaluate the potential market influence of single addresses,” they told Decrypt.
By carefully avoiding listed tokens with an excessive amount of top-10 ownership or developer control, Gate.io aims to help users avoid the risk of price manipulation or concentrated selling and dumps.
Simply providing the right tools to help users do their own research can also help them make safe decisions; Gate.io natively provides information on vital metrics such as Telegram group size, X follower counts, and capital inflows.
Speed matters
These approaches aim to mitigate the risks of token listings while enabling users to reap the rewards of getting in early.
While the first wave of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum took months or even years to reach multimillion-dollar market caps, many newly launched coins undergo a significant chunk of their pricing lifecycle before ever reaching many centralized exchanges.
Gate.io researchers pointed to the example of Swarms (SWARMS), a cryptocurrency used to power an AI-agent ecosystem, which launched on December 17, 2024 with a market cap of below $1 million, per CoinGecko data. But by the time Swarms became available on some of the best-known crypto exchanges, its value had multiplied several hundredfold.
Swarms’ market capitalization had already hit $130 million by the time it was listed on Huobi on January 6, soaring to approximately $285.4 million by the time it listed on Kraken on February 2.
Some centralized exchanges did manage to incorporate Swarms into their listings far earlier, though; Gate.io listed the token on December 20, 2024, after first testing it on its Pilot Trading platform, at a launch market cap of approximately $20.78 million.
Disclaimer
This content does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation. You should always seek independent professional advice before making investment decisions. Gate.io may restrict or prohibit certain services in specific jurisdictions. For more details, please read the User Agreement: https://www.gate.io/zh/user-agreement
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