Last month, a founder of a privacy infrastructure project reached out to me. His team had spent eight months and over $400,000 trying to secure listings on major exchanges. The project had legitimate technology, strong audits, and real utility. Yet every conversation with exchanges came down to the same question: how much can you pay?
This is the moment we find ourselves in. The crypto industry has evolved from the wild west of 2020 to the compliance-heavy landscape of 2025, but we still haven’t solved the fundamental problem. Most exchanges treat token listings as transactions rather than partnerships. Projects pay substantial fees, get listed, and then largely fend for themselves. When 89% of exchange-listed tokens crash after short-lived price spikes, that failure belongs to all of us.
From Gatekeeping to Partnership
The listing landscape has transformed dramatically over the past five years. We moved from basic technical compatibility checks to comprehensive KYC/AML requirements, external audits, and mandatory compliance with regulations like MiCA in Europe. This evolution was necessary and overdue.
But compliance alone hasn’t created healthier markets. The reality is that many projects with real utility and strong technical foundations struggle to gain traction while speculative tokens capture headlines and trading volume. The industry has become focused on short-term narratives rather than long-term value creation.
The most successful exchange partnerships prove what’s possible when commitment extends beyond the listing event. Binance’s support for Polygon included comprehensive marketing, global AMAs, liquidity incentives, and staking promotions. The result was millions of new users and deep liquidity from day one, establishing a template for Layer-2 ecosystem growth.
That’s the standard we should be building toward.
How Phemex Approaches Listings
At Phemex, I’ve built our listing philosophy around a simple conviction: our success depends on supporting projects that create real value over time. This isn’t altruism. It’s recognition that healthy ecosystems generate sustainable business.
We start with transparency. Projects can apply through our straightforward application process with feedback provided within seven business days. But what makes our approach different is community involvement. We maintain a public suggestion form where traders can recommend tokens. We periodically review these suggestions and notify users when their recommendations result in listings.
This matters more than it might seem. Traders using our platform have valuable insights about which projects deserve attention. By incorporating their input, we ensure listings reflect genuine market interest rather than just financial arrangements. We prioritize projects with strong, growing communities that actively support their tokens and amplify their reach. It’s one of the ways we compete on quality rather than volume.
Once we list a project, the relationship deepens rather than ends. We provide ongoing support through joint marketing initiatives, launchpool opportunities, AMAs with our community, and coordinated promotions across our social channels.
We continuously evaluate performance through our Special Treatment mechanism. Assets flagged with elevated risk receive additional scrutiny. We can delist tokens that fail to meet ongoing standards of compliance, liquidity, or activity. Clear public announcements and phased support for withdrawals ensure users stay protected throughout the process.
Our recent listing of Orochi Network exemplifies our focus on technical innovation. ON token represents a Verifiable Data Infrastructure platform utilizing Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Fully Homomorphic Encryption. The project focuses on data integrity and privacy with real technical utility.
But we also recognize that value comes in different forms. We list community-led projects and meme tokens that may not fit traditional utility descriptions but have strong, engaged communities driving genuine adoption. These projects serve real demand in the market and deserve access to quality infrastructure and support.
I don’t measure our listing team’s success by how many tokens we onboard each quarter. I measure it by how many of those projects, whether utility-focused or community-driven, are still building, still growing, and still serving their users two years later. That metric changes everything about how you evaluate opportunities.
What the Industry Needs
When I talk to other exchange leaders, I challenge them on a simple question: are you selecting projects you genuinely believe will matter in three to five years, or are you optimizing for short-term trading fees?
The exchanges that thrive in the coming years won’t be those with the most listings or the highest volumes. They’ll be the ones that support real builders, maintain rigorous standards, and foster genuine innovation. They’ll compete on the strength of their ecosystems, not the size of their listing fees.
This shift requires three things from exchanges:
First, genuine transparency in evaluation. Projects and founders deserve to understand what actually drives listing decisions. Hidden fees and opaque processes benefit no one except those gaming the system.
Second, support that extends beyond the listing announcement. Co-marketing, liquidity programs, and educational initiatives should be standard, not exceptions.
Third, ongoing accountability. Listing isn’t the end of due diligence. It’s the beginning of a partnership where both sides have responsibilities to users and to the broader ecosystem.
At Phemex, we’re committed to this approach. We’re building relationships with projects that create real value, whether through technical innovation or strong community engagement, not just those that generate short-term volume. We’re providing transparency in our evaluation and ongoing support after listing. We’re treating our role as curators and partners, not just liquidity providers.
The founder I mentioned at the start eventually listed with us. His project is growing steadily, building real adoption, and creating genuine value for users. That’s the kind of success story that builds sustainable markets.
Token listings have evolved. It’s time exchanges evolve with them.
The post Beyond Listing: Why Exchanges Must Become Ecosystem Partners appeared first on BeInCrypto.