Create Token Sale is an easy to use STO / IDO / ICO token sale script that lets you run a token sale in a lean way. Use this function to conduct and run an
Initial coin offering (ICO)
Initial DEX offering (IDO)
Security Token Offering (STO)
In order to get started with your Token Sale, you need to have a token prepared. Unless you already created a token, go to Create Token to configure and create your token.
Select your token for the token sale
Once you have your token created, you can enter the Create Token Sale function and select the token that you want to run a token sale for from the drop-down menu.
All available tokens that you own are automatically shown in the drop-down menu. Alternatively you can paste the token contract address in the input field.
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Configure your token sale
Once you have selected the token and clicked Continue, you will enter Step 1 of 2: Configure your token sale.
Select payment token
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Here you determine, how your investors will pay for the tokens you have on sale. In the past, many token sales have been conducted in a way that the only payment method was the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain on which the token was created.
In the case of Ethereum, this was ETH or in the case of Polygon it was MATIC. This has the disadvantage that investors and issuers are exposed to exchange rate fluctuations of the underlying cryptocurrency.
Therefore, Token Tool lets you choose any custom token on the selected chain as a payment method. The most common choice here is a stable coin such as USDC.
Of course, you are free to use any stable coin or custom token. Just make sure that the payment token is easily accessible for your investors. You can also include a DEX widget in your token sale for convenient exchange from cryptocurrencies such as ETH to the payment token / stable coin of your choice.
If you choose a custom payment token, you will need to specify the payment token via its token contract address. If you have the custom token in your own wallet, you can simply select it from the drop-down menu, then you don't need to look up the token contract address.
For convenience, here is the USDC contract address for each supported blockchain:
Make sure to only enter the contract address in Token Tool, not the full block explorer link. Please note that on the respective testnets the token contract addresses are different, you can look up USDC testnet contract addresses here.
Set the token price
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This determines the price per token on sale quoted in the selected payment token. So let's assume that you choose USDC as the payment token, then entering a value of 5 means that for each token on sale 5 USDC has to be paid by your investors.
Sometimes you may want to provide incentives for investors to invest in your token sale early on. One way to do that is to apply discounts / lower prices in different weeks throughout the token sale such as:
Week 1-2 token price: USDC 0.90
Week 2-5 token price: USDC 0.95
Week 5-8 token price: USDC 0.98
In order to do that you can set up a separate token sale for each tier. Just make sure to set the start time and duration of each token sale in a way that there are no time gaps between the different tiers.
Set token sale raised amount caps
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Soft cap: this is the amount you need to raise by the end of the token sale in order for the token sale to happen.
If this amount is not reached, the invested funds can be reclaimed by investors after the token sale is over.
Hard cap: this is the maximum amount that you can raise in your token sale.
The soft cap has to be at least 50% of the hard cap. So let's assume USDC is your payment token and you want to raise USDC 5,000,000 then the soft cap has to be at least USDC 2,500,000.
Choose an amount that is in line with your funding needs and that you believe you can realistically raise from investors.
Set investment amount limits per investor
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This setting is optional and allows you to control the maximum and minimum investment per investor.
Min investment amount: if you set this too high, the entry barrier for some investors might be prohibitive. If you set this to a very low amount, you might have to manage many very small investors.
A value between 1 and 100 dollars normally makes sense unless you are allowed to only accept accredited or professional investors who invest much higher amounts each.
Max investment amount: this is the maximum one investor can invest.
Please note that the investment amounts min and max values are tied to addresses, it is therefore possible to circumvent these limits. If you want to make sure that a certain investor doesn't exceed the limits, you need to set up the token sale in a way that only whitelisted addresses can invest. That way you can make the connection between a particular investor and an address.
Set the timing
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Token sale start time: this is the moment from which investors can invest.
It normally makes sense to run a marketing phase before your token sale starts. You should also allocate enough time to send the tokens to the token sale contract address. When you want to whitelist investors, you can also do that during a ramp-up phase before your token sale starts.
Typically anything between starting in a few days up to several weeks are usual values here.
Important: if you want your token sale to start immediately, we highly recommend to leave enough time to send your tokens to the sale contract. Therefore, make sure you leave at least half an hour between the time you create the sale and the token sale start time.
Token sale duration in days: this determines how long investors can invest in your token sale.
When this is too short, you might not have enough time to find investors. If too long, your marketing impact might fade away. Adjust everything according to your needs. Anything between 2 and 12 weeks (i.e. between 14 and 90 days) is usual here.
As stated above, sometimes you might want to provide discounts for early investors. In that case it makes sense to set up a token sale for each discount tier and align the start and duration of each discount phase accordingly.
Lock duration in days: this determines how many days after the token sale ends investors can claim their tokens.
Set investor whitelist
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This setting has a big impact on how you onboard investors, make a careful decision here.
Every address can invest: in this case everybody can invest in your token sale. This option is suitable for unregulated token sales such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) where you don't need to know the identity of your investors. Here you don't need any additional investor on-boarding. The Token Sale function of Token Tool delivers everything you need for the entire process.
Only whitelisted addresses can invest: when you select this option, an investor can only invest from an address that you whitelisted previously. This option is suitable for token sales where investor KYC is necessary e.g. for regulatory reasons. This is usually the case in a Security Token Offering (STO). The whitelisting of addresses is done under the Manage Token Sale functionality.
You can manage investor on-boarding manually via a spreadsheet or via a professional product such as the Bitbond Offering Manager. The Offering Manager is an enterprise product. Get in touch with us if we can support you here and show you how everything works.
When you manage investor on-boarding via a spreadsheet, everyone who wants to invest should send you an email containing the following information:
Full name (and legal entity in case of an institutional investor)
KYC document (e.g. image of an ID card or passport) of investor or legal representative
Full postal address
Date and place of birth
Citizenship
Tax ID
Email address
Blockchain wallet address
Declaration about source of funds
When all data is checked, the wallet address can be added to the whitelist and email updates can be sent (e.g. when the sale starts and finishes).
Set token sale owner
By default the wallet address with which you are logged-in to token tool is the owner. However, you can also assign a different owner who will then be able to manage the token sale. Only change this if you know what you are doing!
Review token sale configuration and create sale
After you click Continue you arrive at Step 2 of 2: Review token sale configuration. Here you can review everything. Once done, click on the Create sale button to launch your token sale.
After you confirmed the token sale creation from your wallet, you will be shown the Token sale contract address and Shareable token sale link. Bookmark them both!
The Shareable token sale link is the page that you need to share with your investors so they can invest. It normally makes sense to include this page on your existing website via an iframe. Then you can display your project details, team, roadmap etc. on your website and have the token sale page through which investors invest integrated directly.
The Token sale contract address is necessary to log in to Manage Token Sale.
Go to Manage Token Sale
Once you created the token sale successfully it's important that you send tokens to the token sale contract under the Manage Token Sale function. Otherwise the sale won't start. Please also don't send your tokens to the sale contract directly, they will be lost. Only use the function that is provided under Manage Token Sale.
From there you can also edit your token sale up until 10 minutes before the start of the token sale.