For months, sometimes years, protocols operate in a controlled environment. Product decisions are iterative. Governance is flexible. Capital structures evolve privately.
A token launch changes that. Kraken 360 can help.
Distribution becomes permanent. Treasury design becomes visible. Governance begins to operate under real participation and real capital.
The teams that navigate this moment successfully pair strong code and community momentum with a clear operational strategy. They treat launch readiness as infrastructure design.
Across many launches, a pattern emerges:
Protocols that approach the pre-TGE phase as foundational operational work execute more cleanly, attract longer-term institutional participation, and avoid costly restructuring later.
Those that compress critical decisions into the final stretch often introduce friction that compounds under scale.
This post is the first part in a three-part playbook for protocol teams preparing for a public token generation event and institutional participation. It focuses on foundation — the structural decisions that should be addressed months before minting, when clarity compounds and optionality still exists.
We’re not here to replace your lawyers or tax advisors. You need them. We’re sharing the operational perspective that comes from seeing what actually moves the needle when protocols try to go from idea to genesis to growth.
1. Custody is your first real decision
Most founders underestimate custody until it becomes the blocker.
You can have perfect tokenomics, audited contracts, and excited investors, but if your custody story doesn’t hold up under institutional due diligence, everything slows down or stops. Qualified custody from day zero enables regulatory alignment, enforces lockups at the infrastructure level, supports staking delegation, and signals seriousness to supporters and investors.
Some teams start with multisigs, aiming for speed. But as launch approaches, limitations emerge — from friction in key management to audit complexities or institutional concerns around asset handling. Qualified custody helps eliminate these risks, simplify operations, and support the milestones that matter most.
Start custody conversations early. Integration timelines vary (weeks to months), and the earlier you lock in a competent partner who understands token issuance, investor distributions, and staking/governance flows, the smoother the path to launch.
2. From vision to legacy: your token design matters
A token without a clear purpose eventually creates confusion across users, investors, regulators, and the team itself.
Token design is beyond branding. It’s economic architecture. The decisions made here shape governance power, capital formation, user behavior, and long-term credibility.
Strong designs begin with disciplined questions that help guide:
- What behaviors are we incentivizing?
- How do they compound network effects?
- Can this model survive multiple market cycles without rework?
Utility is table stakes. What separates resilient protocols is how well their tokens support governance, capital formation, and long-term alignment.
Clarity here reduces downstream friction. Auditor backlogs are real. Early fundraising instruments such as SAFTs (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) or warrants can establish reference prices and tax implications that are difficult to unwind later.
A token launch reflects the maturity of its design. When incentives, supply mechanics, governance, and compliance considerations are aligned from the start, execution becomes cleaner and long-term flexibility remains intact to enable scale.
3. Decentralization starts with distribution
Token distribution is one of the first and most visible signals of protocol maturity. It shapes who holds influence, how governance unfolds, and whether trust is built with contributors, users, and regulators over time.
Investors now expect:
- Transparent allocation breakdowns (team, advisors, ecosystem, treasury, etc.)
- Vesting schedules and cliffs aligned with real contribution timelines
- Lockup enforcement
The most credible setups enforce distribution at the infrastructure level through qualified custody or smart contracts to prevent early unlocks and ensure compliance. This includes address verification, enforceable vesting, and distribution transparency.
Distribution is also a regulatory signal. U.S. regulatory commentary has consistently emphasized that genuine decentralization and protocol maturity can shape how tokens are evaluated under securities law.1
Decentralization is oftentimes viewed across four operational dimensions:
- Development
Are new features, integrations, and upgrades increasingly proposed and built by third parties? Open grants and milestone funding help here. - Governance
Are protocol decisions made through transparent, multi-stakeholder processes with well defined access and quorum models? - Value Accrual
Is economic value (e.g., rewards or protocol revenue) broadly distributed, or does it concentrate in a few hands? - Access
Can global users stake, vote and contribute with low friction and appropriate compliance measures?
A thoughtful distribution strategy is the starting point but a credible decentralization roadmap is what builds trust with users, investors, and regulators.
4. Staking & governance can’t be bolted on later
If staking or governance are critical to your protocol’s security, utility, or roadmap, they must be infrastructure-ready before TGE.
This means more than designing smart contracts. Institutional participants won’t delegate to validators or vote through interfaces that expose them to key risk. Custodians need time to build support for staking flows, delegation logic, and governance participation that meets operational and security standards.
The most launch-ready teams:
- Confirm support for staking delegation and restaking mechanics
- Define how governance participation will work onchain or via tools
- Ensure rewards and votes are claimable without compromising custody or tax compliance
Delays in any of these systems post-TGE lead to fire drills: missed governance quorums, idle capital, or frustrated early supporters who can’t participate as intended.
Kraken 360 helps teams design and implement staking and governance systems that work from day one — integrated with custody, enforceable through infrastructure, and designed for long-term participation.
5. Readiness isn’t reactive
Token launches can feel like operational sprints. Treasury setup, fiat access, custody integration, investor onboarding, legal approvals, exchange coordination and communications all move in sync, not in sequence.
In well-executed launches, five traits consistently show up:
- Unified treasury operations across fiat and crypto, with capital positioned well ahead of unlock events
- Audit and compliance pathways that run in parallel with development, not after it
Investor onboarding infrastructure in place well before distribution windows - Exchange integration and internal readiness mapped against a coordinated launch timeline
- Staking and governance systems live and accessible on day one
Kraken 360 consolidates these elements into a single operational layer. Custody, fiat access, token distribution, investor compliance, and exchange coordination are embedded from day zero. Protocols launch with greater visibility, fewer dependencies, and momentum that compounds beyond the announcement.
Partner with a proven practitioner
Kraken 360 exists for the moment when a protocol’s vision becomes operational reality.
Custody. Treasury coordination. Programmatic distributions. Staking and governance support. Global access infrastructure. All integrated into a single, crypto-native, compliance-aligned stack purpose-built to support serious teams preparing for launch.
Kraken 360 replaces fragmented vendors with coordinated infrastructure designed for precise execution and deep market experience. It’s infrastructure with perspective.
This is Part 1, the foundation. Parts 2 and 3 will cover execution and expansion.
All of Kraken 360 supports our mission: To accelerate the adoption of crypto so that everyone can achieve financial freedom and inclusion.
Kraken 360 is built for the teams building that future.
Our dedicated team is ready to discuss how we can support your launch roadmap. Reach out now:
1 Peirce, Hester M. “Statement on Request for Information.” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 21 Feb. 2025, https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-statement-rfi-022125
Custody services are provided by Payward Financial, Inc. or Payward Europe Solutions, Ltd, as applicable. Payward Financial, Inc. d/b/a Kraken Financial is not an FDIC-insured bank and deposits are neither insured by nor subject to the protections of the FDIC. Payward Europe Solutions Limited, trading as Kraken, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
Geographic restrictions apply.
The post Kraken 360 pre-TGE playbook Part 1: designing your protocol for launch readiness appeared first on Kraken Blog.
