Chains
Launching a token on Ethereum and its L2s
9 min read · Updated
The EVM world gives you a choice of venue, and the venue changes who shows up. Mainnet buys credibility with gas costs; L2s buy volume with cheap transactions.
Picking the chain
- Ethereum mainnet — highest credibility and deepest capital, but gas prices out small buyers. Best for tokens whose audience is already on mainnet.
- Base — consumer-friendly, cheap, strong culture around new tokens and creator projects.
- Arbitrum — deep DeFi liquidity and a trading-native audience.
- Polygon — very low fees, strong in gaming and consumer apps.
- BNB Chain — enormous retail throughput, PancakeSwap-centric, strong in Asian markets.
Contract hygiene buyers check
- Verified source code on the explorer — unverified contracts lose most serious buyers immediately.
- Ownership renounced, or a multisig owner with the signers disclosed.
- No transfer tax surprises; if you have a tax, state the exact percentages.
- No blacklist or pause functions unless you can justify them publicly.
- LP locked with a public lock transaction.
Liquidity and routing
Uniswap dominates mainnet and Arbitrum, Aerodrome is central on Base, and PancakeSwap on BNB Chain. Launch in the venue your audience already routes through — aggregator support follows depth, not intentions.
Cross-chain presence without fragmenting liquidity
Being visible on several chains does not require deploying on several chains. Keep liquidity in one place and make your listing, leaderboard presence and content discoverable to buyers on every chain. Fragmented liquidity produces bad charts everywhere instead of a good chart somewhere.
Key takeaways
- Chain choice is an audience choice, not a technical one.
- Verify source code and disclose every privileged function.
- Concentrate liquidity in the dominant venue for your chain.
- Be visible cross-chain without deploying cross-chain.
Put it on the board
CryptoTokenWars ranks crypto projects by on-chain bids and votes from wallet-verified holders, across Solana, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon and BNB Chain. Listing is free and the board resets every Monday.