As on-chain assets gradually occupy the market focus with their low barriers and quick efficiency, the listing effect of exchanges seems to be waning. However, in a narrative-driven and sentiment-dominated crypto market, exchanges, as the main aggregators of liquidity, are not only value discoverers but also trend amplifiers. The directional choices made by mainstream exchanges when deciding on new coin listings are quietly painting the underlying tone of "high-quality assets" in the next cycle.
Different Listing Logics: Star Projects VS Grassroots Projects?
Looking back at the listing patterns of major exchanges, Binance tends to choose projects with significant user scale, star teams, or strategic investment backgrounds, emphasizing platform empowerment and compliance review through labels like Alpha and Launchpool. OKX, leveraging its wallet advantages, notably accelerates community participation, emphasizing "on-chain performance as a liquidity signal".
In this round of new coin listings, HTX demonstrated another dimension: not constrained by financing backgrounds or early VC support, but instead focusing more on community heat, narrative power, and transparency, forming a screening logic closer to "real consensus discovery".
Taking the recently listed HPOS10I, SOON, and Moonpig in HTX's innovation zone as examples, these three vastly different new assets cover the three major hotspots of MEME heat, technical narrative, and grassroots culture. Below, we will analyze how mainstream exchanges build their "new coin value discovery system" from platform, project, and user perspectives.
Platform Perspective: Community-Led + Deep Narrative + On-Chain Activity = New Listing Formula
Traditionally, exchange "listings" often meant resource manipulation, capital drive, or strategic betting. However, HTX's recent screening strategy shows: traffic is still important, but more attention is paid to the "source" and "narrative dimension" of traffic to ensure health and sustainability.
"HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu" (HPOS10I) is called the "ultimate form" of MEME, standing out for its typical characteristics of "chaotic narrative + community self-governance + multi-cultural extension". What HTX valued was the real community's self-organizing ability and the diverse narrative possibilities derived from Non-Fungible Token, e-commerce, and brand IP. HTX's choice to list HPOS10I also reflects a trend shift: exchanges are no longer chasing short-term traffic but focusing more on the dual potential of narrative depth and ecosystem expansion.
Project Perspective: Technical Projects Becoming MEME, Hardcore Beneath the Packaging
In a narrative-driven market, purely technical projects often struggle to open liquidity early without quickly building an "emotional tag". SOON provides a solution to this problem.
SOON's name seems MEME-like but is actually a high-performance Infra project with a complete Rollup architecture. Its proposed "Super Application Stack" (SAS) model not only provides a Rollup solution for L1 but also natively integrates Web2 user behavior scenarios like live streaming platforms and content portals, forming a closed loop from underlying technology to user experience.
HTX's listing of SOON signals an important message: exchanges are encouraging "technical project narrative friendliness", where "technology that can tell a story" is more welcome than "pure hardcore stacking". In other words, future high-quality Infra track projects that can build a clear user imagination space, brand expression, and cultural topics early on will significantly increase their chances of being noticed by centralized exchanges.
User Perspective: Grassroots Projects with Fair On-Chain Launch Can Also Gain Mainstream Platform Recognition
Moonpig is a typical Pump.fun native project - no pre-sale, no VC, completely community-driven. Driven by fair launch and humor culture, its community heat rapidly increased, embodying a native decentralized spirit and becoming a sample of "grassroots projects entering centralization".
HTX's listing of Moonpig clearly signals that more "naturally growing" on-chain grassroots projects will have opportunities to gain centralized platform attention and validation. MEME projects that can self-screen and naturally grow in on-chain communities, meeting standards of transparency and community activity, can also gain exchange trust and resource support.
Summary: Three "Listing Mainlines", A Portrait of Future Value Assets
Combining this round of listed projects, HTX's current listing logic can be clearly outlined in three mainlines:
- MEME projects with long narrative lifecycle: Observe if the community is truly self-governing and has cultural expansion potential. MEME cannot rely solely on hype but must have content extensibility from "MEME to IP".
- Technical Infra projects: Check if the technology is hardcore, if the narrative packaging is approachable, and if it can quickly inspire attention. Infra projects should no longer hide in white papers but should quickly connect with users and liquidity through MEME-style packaging and clear positioning.
- Grassroots on-chain native projects: Examine if the on-chain launch is fair and forms a natural consensus. "Grassroots MEME" with fair on-chain launch, transparent mechanisms, and no short-term malicious history will become the next batch of "potential stocks".
As an old-brand mainstream trading platform, HTX's listing strategy in the new cycle has clearly shifted from "hot spot tracking" to "narrative screening". The logic behind this is clear: the MEME market has evolved from image meme culture to cultural identity and community belonging; project outreach no longer depends on traditional BD promotion but penetrates core communities through "new narratives" closer to user context.
In this transformation, the role of exchanges is also changing - no longer just intermediaries for asset listing, but filters of cultural narrative and consensus value. And this is precisely the true barrier to future exchange competition.
