The Dilemma of Listing Cryptos and Its Potential Solutions

In traditional financial markets, a company's listing usually has two main purposes: refinancing to expand production and obtaining market endorsement. Both of these aims are designed to enhance the company's business competitiveness and create more value for shareholders. Additionally, going public can provide founders and investors with an exit channel, as well as retain talent through equity incentives.

However, the cryptocurrency industry faces a starkly different reality. The vast majority of cryptocurrency projects are not profitable, and scaling production holds no significance for them. Therefore, the main purpose of these projects launching coins often lies solely in providing an exit opportunity for founders, investors, and employees.

This situation has led to a series of problems. First, crypto projects lack a strict review mechanism before listing coins, without strong underwriters to oversee them like in traditional IPOs. Second, many project teams lack a serious understanding of the importance of listing coins, and coupled with the protection of anonymity, this may lead them to adopt various improper means to achieve their listing goals.

What is even more concerning is that, in the current environment, whether it is the project team, exchange employees, or the exchange itself, there seems to be a lack of effective punishment mechanisms. The worst outcome for the project team might just be getting blacklisted by a certain exchange, but there is still an opportunity to try other platforms. It is difficult to gather evidence and hold exchange employees accountable for misconduct, especially under the anonymity and privacy protections of crypto assets. For exchanges, listing poor-quality coins might just mean earning slightly less money, and it does not lead to direct losses.

In addition, unlike traditional listed companies that are required to regularly disclose financial statements, cryptocurrency projects often lack transparency after being listed, and even the on-chain flow of funds can be difficult to track. This makes it challenging for investors to effectively evaluate the projects.

In the face of these challenges, a possible solution is to completely change the existing coin listing model. It is suggested to consider setting up two platforms: a main site and a community site. The main site should gradually shrink the range of coin listings and even consider delisting some existing tokens. The community site would adopt a decentralized exchange (DEX) model, implementing a registration system that allows any project to list coins fairly.

This model may cause some discomfort in the short term, but in the long run, it is expected to change the entire industry's ecology. It will force project teams to focus more on developing truly valuable applications rather than making listing coins the ultimate goal. At the same time, this will allow the market to discover truly valuable projects in a fairer environment.

Overall, the cryptocurrency industry needs to rethink the token listing mechanism and establish a healthier, more sustainable ecosystem. This requires the joint efforts of industry participants to follow business rules and human nature in order to promote the industry's development in a better direction.