On August 11, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote in his Twitter that Binance doesn’t list “shitcoins even if they pay 400 or 4,000 BTC”:
“We don’t list shitcoins even if they pay 400 or 4,000 BTC. ETH/NEO/XRP/EOS/XMR/LTC/more listed with no fee. Question is not “how much does Binance charge to list?” but “is my coin good enough?” It’s not the fee, it’s your project! Focus on your own project!”
On August 12, Zhao tweeted that he had updated his personal Binance listing tips again.
“The online application form is the ONLY way to apply for listing on Binance. Projects should fill it in completely and comprehensively”, – wrote Binance CEO.
Tip 2 reads: Don’t ask for a contact person. We don’t allow contact with our review team. We want to avoid bias influence as well as potential bribery attempts. We do our initial review objectively based on information you supply and publicly available info, like a regular investor.
According to the third and the fourth tips, Binance usually doesn’t reject listing applications outright because the project may improve over time. If the project have made any significant progress, its team can submit the information again in the same form as a re-applicant.
If the project passes Binance’s initial review, someone from Binance will be in touch with the project’s team for more specific questions relating to the project. Binance will then setup a tech integration channel as well as a commercial discussion channel.
Tip 8 reads: Beware of scammers pretending to be Binance. The current fashion is email spoofing. I assume more advanced methods will come later. Find a way to verify they are indeed from Binance, especially before you make a payment for listing fees.
About evaluation
“We want good coins. That’s it! I know it’s vague, but every coin is different.”
“In general, we like coins with a proven team, useful product, and large user base. It’s all basic stuff, nothing fancy. It is subjective, and not perfect (we know that). We don’t have any hard requirements (such as x people in Telegram), as any requirement we publish will likely be reverse engineered”, – wrote Binance CEO.
Tip 9 reads: Focus on user adoption. That’s the easiest to measure and provides the most convincing data. If you have a large number of users, your product has value.
Tip 11 reads: It is a bad idea to “try-to-pressure” Binance into listing your coin by spreading FUD or negative comments about Binance. Doing so will get you on the blacklist. Further, while we try to never proactively say anything negative about any coin or anyone, we do aggressively defend our brand from anyone who attacks us, including attacking back. We feel obligated to do so to protect the interests of our investors.
About fees
Before getting to the fee , Binance needs to put projects into at least 4 categories. Very good, good, average, and bad.
“Very good” projects have stable products and many users, and/or will grow in price and have a strong user base.
“In fact, exchanges should pay the coin team to list them, but alas, no one can prevent an exchange to list a blockchain asset.”
“Good” projects are still good, but they carry some risks. Exchanges have to ask: Will their progress continue? Their price is not over hyped? Their product, blockchain, wallet are secure and stable? How much work is involved in integrating their wallet, blockchain monitoring, etc? More risk tends to lower value and increase cost.
“There is a further dimension here, size of the exchange. These “good” projects can bring more positive impact for smaller exchanges (with a smaller existing user base, thus less overlap) than to big exchanges (higher degree of user overlap). Big exchanges bring far more users/liquidity to the coin. Big exchanges also have more to lose. If they make a mis-judgement, the damage is wider. So, the small exchanges should still pay the project teams to list them, and these projects should pay big exchanges for listing. In fact, in addition to listing fees, there should also be insurance deposits to guard against issues like wallet bugs, double spend attacks, etc. These tend to have unlimited downside, if proper care is not taken. “Proper care” costs money to implement and maintain. This is especially required for “newer” coins, all the new “mainnet swaps” we see these days”, – wrote Zhao.
“Average” projects carry even more risk for exchanges, and especially for big ones like Binance. If the project turns bad, then a lot of users are affected.
“For these projects, we typically like to wait-and-see. If they keep making good progress, we can always list them at a later date.”
According to Zhao, “Bad/scam” projects are worth a brief mention because they are always willing to pay anything.
“They would happily pay $20m USD, as long as they think they can cash out at a market cap of $21m, or even $20.1m. This is why top exchanges never make listing fee a top consideration factor.”
Then Zhao continued:
“If you make your project as awesome as ETH, there won’t be any discussion about fees. If you are not quite there yet, you should consider the free market value system, and what is worth to you for listing on a Binance. Exchanges don’t have an obligation to list your coin.”
According to 14, 15 and 16 tips, if the project incorporated BNB into its ecosystem and raised BNB for its ICO, and if the project has been a promoter/supporter of Binance in its community, all of these will increase the project’s priority of review and chance of listing.
About ICOs
Big ICOs carry a lot of risk for listing. For big market cap projects, Zhao always recommends charging in % of the market cap, and asking for a large % of the raised amount as insurance deposit.
Small ICOs have other difficulties. It’s hard to predict how they will grow.
“I guess in summary, we like: strong team, existing product, large user base, and ones that have done relatively small ICOs. The bar’s not too high, right?”
“Thinking it through, the fact people complain about Binance not having listed a coin shows strong support for Binance. You want to trade your favorite coin on Binance! We appreciate that. And we are working hard to improve our processes, reviewing and listing high quality coins as fast as we can. We thank you for your patience, understanding and strong support for Binance”, – concluded Zhao.
