How to launch a token on Base

Before you start: what you need

• A wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or Rabby, connected to Base.
• A little ETH on Base for fees and gas. Creating a token and a few modules costs a few cents of gas plus the Kobolt fees.
• ETH for the liquidity pool, if you want people to trade from day one. This is usually the largest cost.
• A separate wallet for each role you plan to fund (team, treasury, marketing), with every seed phrase backed up offline.
• An official X account and Telegram (or Discord), so there is one place people can check the real address.

1. Decide what the token is for

Write down in one sentence why the token exists: a community or meme token, rewards in an app, voting, or access to a product. The purpose decides almost everything else. A meme token usually wants a fixed supply and no owner powers. A utility token may need minting up to a cap if rewards are issued over time. If you can't explain the purpose, holders won't be able to either.

2. Plan supply and allocation

Pick a total supply and split it into allocations before you deploy. Round numbers are easiest to reason about: 100,000,000 is common for project tokens, 1,000,000,000 for meme tokens. The number itself doesn't change the value; what matters is how much each group gets and when.

These are common ranges, not rules. Whatever you choose, publish the table and make sure the on-chain setup matches it exactly.

3. Choose the owner powers

Every power you keep is a risk in the eyes of holders, so keep only what you need:

• Fixed supply (not mintable): nobody can ever create more tokens. The strongest signal.
• Mintable with a cap: you can mint later, but never beyond the cap, even after burns. Useful for rewards issued over time.
• Burnable: holders can destroy their own tokens. Harmless and often used to burn unsold or unused tokens.
• Pausable: the owner can freeze all transfers. Useful for emergencies, but many holders treat it as a red flag.

Kobolt tokens have no transfer tax, no blacklist and no upgrade path, so the options above are the only powers that can exist. See the ERC-20 token generator for the full list of what the contract guarantees. Each power is explained in ERC-20 owner powers.

4. Create the token

Open the token builder, describe your token or fill in the form, and read the review screen: it lists in plain words what the contract can and can't do. Confirm in your wallet. When the transaction lands you get the token address, and the full supply is in your wallet. Save the address and check it on BaseScan before you do anything else. The step-by-step version with every option is on Create a token on Base.

5. Lock team and partner tokens with vesting

Before you announce anything, move team, advisor, treasury and marketing tokens into vesting schedules. A schedule has a start date, an optional cliff (nothing unlocks) and a linear release. Schedules can't be cancelled, so holders can verify them on-chain and rely on them. Doing this before launch matters: it's the first thing careful buyers check. Common setups for each group are in Token vesting schedule templates. Remember that beneficiaries claim their tokens themselves; nothing is sent automatically.

6. Pick a launch method

There are three common ways to get a token into people's hands:

• Direct DEX pool: you pair tokens with ETH on Uniswap or Aerodrome and trading starts immediately. Simple and cheap, but you set the starting price yourself and early buyers and bots can move it fast.
• Auction or fair launch: buyers bid over a fixed period and everyone pays the same clearing price, after which a pool is created. It takes longer but discovers the price more fairly. Uniswap offers a launch auction tool on Base.
• Airdrop first: you distribute tokens to a community before or alongside a pool. Good for community tokens, but plan it carefully so recipients can't create their own pool before yours. See How to airdrop tokens on Base.

7. Add liquidity and set the starting price

In a pool, the starting price is simply the ETH you add divided by the tokens you add. If you pair 5 ETH with 10,000,000 tokens, the starting price is 0.0000005 ETH per token. A deeper pool (more ETH and tokens at the same ratio) moves less when people buy or sell. Uniswap v2-style pools and Aerodrome basic pools give you LP tokens; Uniswap v3/v4 and Aerodrome Slipstream give you a position NFT. Keep your main liquidity in one pool; aggregators route buyers to it. The full walkthrough is in How to add liquidity on Uniswap.

8. Lock the liquidity

Whoever holds the LP tokens or position NFT can remove the liquidity at any time. Locking it until a set date proves to holders that it can't be pulled before then. Choose a period that matches your plans, at least several months for most projects, and share the public proof page. A lock can be extended but never shortened.

9. Reward your community

Use the airdrop tool to send tokens to early supporters (up to 500 wallets per transaction), and consider a staking pool with funded rewards so long-term holders have a reason to stay. Fund staking from the community allocation, not by minting new tokens.

10. Announce safely

• Post the token address only on your official channels, pin it, and say clearly that any other address is fake.
• Link the vesting vault, the liquidity lock and the contract on BaseScan in the same post.
• Never DM people first and never ask for seed phrases; scammers will copy your name, logo and announcements.
• Don't promise returns or price targets. Explain what the token does and how the supply is locked.

What it costs to launch on Base

A launch on Base is cheap in fees and gas; the liquidity is where the real money goes. Typical costs:

The full breakdown with examples is on Token launch cost.

Legal and tax: check before you sell

Rules depend on where you and your buyers are. In the EU, offering a crypto-asset to the public can require a crypto-asset white paper under MiCA, with some exemptions for small offers. Selling tokens, running an auction or promising rewards can also have tax and consumer-law consequences. This guide is not legal advice; talk to a lawyer before you sell tokens to the public.

Common mistakes

• Deploying before the allocation is final, then needing a second token.
• Keeping team tokens in a normal wallet instead of vesting.
• Adding liquidity without locking it.
• Posting the address in many places, so fake copies are hard to spot.
• Using one wallet for everything, so a single leaked seed phrase loses the whole project.

Pre-launch checklist

• Purpose, supply and allocation written down and published
• Token deployed and checked on BaseScan
• Vesting schedules created for team, treasury, marketing and advisors
• Launch method chosen and liquidity ETH ready
• Liquidity added and LP locked, proof page saved
• Official links pinned on X and Telegram
• Scam warning posted

FAQ

More Kobolt tools

• Create a token on Base
• ERC-20 token generator
• Token vesting
• Liquidity lock
• Token airdrop tool
• Token staking
• Add liquidity on Uniswap
• Vesting templates
• Owner powers
• Airdrop guide
• Token launch cost
• Docs