A token launch draws more attention than almost any other web3 announcement, and more scrutiny. Journalists, regulators, security researchers and scammers all show up on the same day.
This is how we think about the communications side. It's PR practice, not legal, financial or investment advice. Lawyers decide what can be said. Our job is to make sure the right questions get asked early, and that everything that goes out is clear, consistent and true.
The story is the utility, not the token
If the only story is the token, writers treat it as a finance story, and most don't want one. The launches that earn serious coverage lead with what people can actually do, and why a token is needed at all. We made the same argument for games in The Token Was Never the Story. Finding that narrative usually means challenging the team's own framing.
Disclosure is the credibility
The whitepaper and docs are what every journalist, community member and critic will check. So are the tokenomics (supply, allocation, vesting, who controls the treasury and the contracts), the team, and the audits and what they found. Gaps and contradictions surface quickly, and in public. Disclosure you volunteer reads as confidence. Disclosure a reporter has to dig out reads as a cover-up.
In the EU, this is also regulation. MiCA sets rules for crypto-asset white papers. Its Article 7 requires marketing communications to be clearly identifiable, fair, clear and not misleading, and consistent with the white paper where one is required. ESMA publishes the guidance. Whether and how MiCA applies to a given launch is for counsel to decide.
Your community is also an attack surface
Discord, X and Telegram are where a launch lives, and where impersonators, fake airdrops and wallet drainers go after your users. Moderation, official channels and scam warnings are communications work, and they can't wait for the first incident. One offhand moderator reply about price can undo months of positioning.
Press, timing and the TGE
Crypto trade press and mainstream business and tech desks want different things, and a pitch that works for one often fails with the other. Timing around the token generation event (TGE) and any airdrop is just as delicate: what's said before, on the day and after has to hold together. An exchange listing should never become the headline.
Paid promotion is regulated promotion
Influencer and KOL deals carry the most legal exposure. In the US, the FTC expects anyone with a material connection to a brand to disclose it clearly. In the UK, cryptoasset promotions have been within the FCA's financial promotions regime since 8 October 2023. The FCA says the regime covers social media and firms based overseas, and that an unlawful promotion can be a criminal offence. US securities law also has an anti-touting provision, and the SEC has brought cases against paid crypto promoters. Whether any of this applies to a given token or post is for counsel to decide. More on creator partnerships is in How to Work with Influencers and Creators.
What not to say
Price, returns, gains, "the moon", listings framed as wins for holders, urgency to buy, roadmap items described as if they're live. Any of these can turn a product story into an investment pitch, with all the risk that carries. The hard part isn't knowing the list. It's holding the line when a founder, a partner or a paid creator wants to go off-script.
Plan for the bad day
Exploits, depegs and compromised accounts happen fast and in public. The teams that come through them decided beforehand who speaks, who signs off and how users can tell a real statement from a fake one. That's the core of crisis communications, and it can't be improvised once a hack is trending.
Launch day is the start
Trust is built in the updates that follow. Journalists come back to the projects that report setbacks as plainly as milestones.
Getting all of this right at once, across the US, UK and EU, takes judgment that only comes from doing it.
Planning a token launch? Request a briefing.