Key takeaways

• A crypto exchange listing on Binance is usually followed by a fall, with Empirica's study of more than 500 Binance listings finding tokens down 22.66% after three months and 37.64% after six, measured from the first day's close.

• The day-one listing pop is mostly an illusion, because Empirica traced the average 1,691% "gain" against the opening price to artificially low opening prints that almost nobody traded.

• Binance says it charges no listing fee, but founders keep reporting token and deposit requests, so the smarter plan is to fix the float, build demand before listing day and grade the result at day 90.

A crypto exchange listing is still the last slide in most token go-to-market decks. Everything before it, from the community push to the market-maker talks, gets framed as the climb, and the listing on a tier 1 exchange, one of the handful of biggest venues such as Binance, Coinbase or OKX (AnkhLabs has worked with OKX Alpha), is the summit. The team plans toward it, the investors ask about it, and the whole roadmap quietly assumes that getting listed is the moment the work pays off.

The data says the summit is where the falling starts. The research firm Empirica studied more than 500 Binance listings across seven years and found that, measured from the first day's closing price, tokens fell an average of 22.66% within three months and 37.64% within six, and only 5.5% of 2024's listings were up after six months. Animoca's research team looked wider and found that across 773 tokens listed on five major exchanges in 2024, the median result was negative on every one of them, with losses of 40% to 70%. The following year didn't fix anything, because 84.7% of the 118 token launches Memento Research tracked in 2025 ended the year below their launch valuation.

A listing doesn't create demand. It creates access, and access serves whoever was already waiting to sell.

What happens to a token's price after an exchange listing?

Most tokens fall after a major exchange listing, often within weeks. Across seven years of Binance listings, the average token was down 37.64% six months after its first day's close, and in 2024 only 5.5% were higher after six months. Listings concentrate every waiting seller into one liquid moment, and new buyers rarely absorb that supply.

The famous day-one pop hides this. Empirica found the average "gain" of 1,691% against the opening price comes from artificially low opening prints that almost nobody actually got to trade, so the screenshot is real while the gains mostly aren't. Early 2025 showed the same pattern at Binance, where only 3 of 27 new listings went up and the average loss was 44%.

Why listed tokens fall, and it isn't bad luck

Binance's own research team published the diagnosis. Its report calculated that roughly $155 billion worth of locked tokens will unlock between 2024 and 2030, and coverage of the same report notes that tokens launched in 2024 had only about 12% of their supply actually circulating. That circulating share is called the float, and when it's small, the price is set by a thin slice of tokens while the rest waits to be sold.

Put those numbers together and the post-listing chart stops being a mystery, because a listing gathers every seller you've ever created into one liquid moment. The early investors are waiting for a market, the unlock dates are scheduled right behind them, and the airdrop recipients are there too, since Keyrock found 88% of tokens launched with airdrops in 2024 declined. If the people waiting at the door are mostly sellers, you've thrown them a liquidity party and called it a milestone, which is the same trap we describe in airdrop marketing that leaks value.

How much does a Binance listing cost?

Binance says it doesn't charge listing fees, but the true cost is rarely zero. In 2025 Binance described a required security deposit as user protection, while one founder publicly claimed he'd been asked for 8% of his token supply and a $2 million deposit. Earlier public claims about top exchanges ran from 15% of supply to tens of millions of dollars.

The price argument went public in late 2024, when one fund said a top exchange asked a project for 15% of its token supply, Andre Cronje claimed Coinbase had quoted projects $30 million to $300 million, and Coinbase's CEO replied that listings are free. In October 2025 Limitless CEO CJ Hetherington said Binance asked for 8% of supply and a $2 million deposit, and Binance answered that it "does not charge listing fees". Whatever the truth at each venue, a fee paid in your own tokens is pre-committed sell pressure dressed up as a partnership announcement.

Meanwhile the exchanges have changed what a listing means. Binance now runs community votes on what gets listed and delisted, so the biggest exchange no longer wants to guess whether your token has real demand. It wants the demand proven first, which turns the listing from a stamp of arrival into a test you're expected to walk in already passing.

What we'd tell a founder about a crypto exchange listing

Plan the listing as a demand event, not a press release. The tokens that survive listing week are the ones where new buyers were recruited into the moment, with a campaign that builds to a peak on listing day, activation pushes in the communities that will actually use the product and a reason to buy that isn't "it's on Binance now". If your listing plan is an announcement thread, the only guests you've invited are your own unlocking investors.

Public token sales show what recruiting buyers in advance looks like. For Cross The Ages, AnkhLabs used different messaging for players and for investors, and the public sale closed at $500K+ with the IDO fully allocated. For OKX Alpha, distribution through key opinion leaders (KOLs, the crypto term for influencers) supported a $500K public sale close, with creators selected on trading credibility and audience quality rather than follower count, which is the test our guide to crypto KOL marketing argues for. Both figures are as reported by client and platform data, and both were public sales rather than exchange listings, but the buyers were found before the day in each case.

Fix the float before you fix the venue. That means more supply circulating at launch, no unlock cliffs anywhere near listing week and a published unlock calendar with no surprises. Binance wrote its low-float report because low-float listings keep burning its users, and being the team that visibly doesn't play that game is now something you can market as part of your token launch strategy.

Never pay for distribution in supply. Cash fees are a cost, but token fees create a counterparty who profits when your chart bleeds. If a venue wants a large percentage of your token, compare it honestly, not against other exchanges but against what that much supply could do funding two years of user acquisition.

Grade the listing at day 90, not day one. Look at holders kept, users who came for the listing but stayed for the product, and volume that remains after the incentives end, because rented liquidity leaves when the rewards do. Day-one volume measures how well the sellers coordinated, while day-90 holders measure whether the listing brought you anyone at all.

None of this means you should skip the big listing, because the liquidity, legitimacy and reach are all real. The listing just changed jobs, from the reward at the end of a go-to-market to an amplifier in the middle of one, and it makes whatever demand you've already built louder, including a demand of zero. The teams still treating it as the finish line keep discovering that the market opens, the waiting sellers sell, and the go-to-market that was supposed to start that day was already over. Building that demand first is the job of a go-to-market strategy, and our case studies show how we've run it for sales and launches. If you have a listing date coming and want help planning the campaign around it, talk to AnkhLabs.

Frequently asked questions

How do you list a token on Binance?

Projects apply through Binance's listing process and go through a review, and Binance's own announcements list factors such as team commitment, development activity, trading volume, network security and regulatory compliance in its decisions. Since 2025 Binance has also run community "Vote to List" and "Vote to Delist" polls, though it says votes are not the sole deciding factor.

Does Binance charge a listing fee?

Binance says it does not. Since 2018 it has described any payment a project offers as a voluntary donation to charity, and in October 2025 it said a required security deposit exists to protect users. Founders have still publicly reported requests for token allocations, including one claim of 8% of supply plus a $2 million deposit.

What is a tier 1 CEX listing?

A tier 1 CEX listing means a token is added to one of the largest centralized exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase or OKX, which offer the deepest liquidity and biggest user bases. It brings reach and credibility, but data on 773 listings across five major exchanges in 2024 showed a negative median return on every one of them.

Is a Binance listing good for a token's price?

Usually not over six months. Empirica's study of more than 500 Binance listings found tokens fell 37.64% on average in the six months after their first day's close, and only 5.5% of 2024 listings were up after six months. Tokens with larger circulating supply and real usage before listing tend to hold up better.

When should a project list on a major exchange?

After demand exists, not before. Binance now uses community votes and wants proof of interest, and listings concentrate every waiting seller into one moment. The best time is when circulating supply is healthy, no major unlocks fall near listing week and there is an active user base ready to buy on the day.