A seasoned industry veteran dropped another harsh remark, making many teams pause and reflect.

His original words were roughly this: “If your project is truly solid, exchanges will line up to approach you; on the flip side, if you’re still begging everywhere for listing opportunities, you need to rethink who’s actually creating value for whom.”

It sounds harsh, but it really hits a sore spot for many.

How many teams haven’t even built a solid foundation—products are half-finished, user numbers are minimal—yet are already rushing to pay for listing slots. What’s the result? After going live, trading volumes are dismal in just a couple of days, and the project ends up on life support.

**If you’re strong enough, there’s no need to beg**

To be blunt: stop complaining about sky-high listing fees or ridiculous airdrop requirements. If your project is truly solid, centralized exchanges will proactively reach out for collaboration. The core issue is never about having enough money, but whether your product is strong enough.

For high-quality projects, platforms are actually afraid of being too slow and letting competitors snatch up the traffic bonus first.

**Exchanges aren’t the end goal, users are**

He also brought up a key point: in the decentralized world, no one’s forcing you to choose a particular business path.

Don’t like expensive listing fees? Set it to zero; want to list for free? Go to a DEX.

He gave an example—PancakeSwap never charges listing fees, yet trading volume still grows explosively. The market doesn’t care how you charge; it only cares if you can deliver a great user experience.

**Three listing strategies, each with its own motives**

Different platforms have very different approaches:

The first is the fully open model, accepting any coin, which leads to a flood of junk and scam tokens.

The second uses a screening process, charging fees or requiring airdrops—essentially a form of risk control.

The third, most common, uses a combination of deposit requirements, tiered mechanisms, and Web3 entry points to balance revenue and safety.

So, listing fees aren’t simply right or wrong—they’re more about strategic choices.

**Back to basics, don’t be fooled by appearances**

The underlying logic is actually very clear:

Project teams should focus on perfecting their product, building an ecosystem, and retaining users; exchanges should focus on risk control and vetting projects; as for listing fees, they’re just a balancing act at different stages.

To sum it up: strong projects never have to beg, while weak projects can scream themselves hoarse and it still won’t help.

A reminder to all project teams: the real core competitiveness in crypto isn’t about spending money to build relationships—it’s about making platforms afraid not to list you.