Selecting the right partner is critical for new assets, as the first days after a TGE can quickly expose weaknesses in liquidity, market depth, and exchange coverage. If you are searching for the Top 10 crypto market makers for token launches: Who should quote your token?, the most important factor is finding a firm whose infrastructure, reporting, and incentive model align with your project’s specific needs.
That is where professional market makers come in.
A better question is: Which market maker’s infrastructure, engagement model, exchange coverage, reporting, and incentives fit your token?
A strong market-making partner can help create more orderly markets by continuously quoting bids and asks, managing inventory, and adapting liquidity to changing conditions. But the commercial structure matters just as much as the firm’s trading technology. Retainer agreements, token loans, loan-and-call-option structures, and other arrangements can create very different incentives for both sides.
This guide compares 10 established crypto-native market makers that are relevant to token issuers, particularly teams preparing for TGE, CEX listings, DEX liquidity, or early-stage market development.
Important: This is an informational comparison, not investment or financial advice. Market making does not guarantee a token’s price, trading volume, exchange listing, or long-term liquidity.
What Does a Crypto Market Maker Do for a Token Launch?
A crypto market maker provides continuous buy and sell liquidity for an asset across trading venues.
Instead of waiting for natural buyers and sellers to meet, a market maker places two-sided quotes around the market price. This can help reduce spreads, improve order-book depth, and make it easier for traders to execute orders without significant price impact.
For a token launch, market-making activities can include:
- Providing liquidity on centralized exchanges (CEXs)
- Supporting decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity
- Maintaining bid and ask quotes
- Managing token and stablecoin inventory
- Monitoring spreads and market depth
- Managing liquidity during high-volatility periods
- Supporting multiple trading pairs
- Providing liquidity reports and KPI tracking
- Coordinating liquidity around listings, unlocks, and other scheduled events
However, market making is not the same as guaranteeing a token price or manufacturing trading volume.
Professional firms generally focus on improving the trading environment rather than promising that a token will reach a particular price or volume level. Portofino, for example, explicitly distinguishes liquidity provision from manufacturing volume and warns against practices such as wash trading.
Top 10 crypto market makers for token launches: Who should quote your token?
The firms below are selected based on their relevance to token issuers, market-making infrastructure, CEX/DEX capabilities, launch support, transparency, and publicly documented experience.
1. Keyrock
Keyrock is a crypto-native market maker that has been operating in digital assets since 2017. Its offering covers market making, OTC trading, options, DEX liquidity, and asset management.
For token projects, one of Keyrock’s main advantages is the breadth of its market infrastructure. The company says its liquidity systems aggregate data from 85+ exchanges, allowing it to monitor pricing and liquidity across multiple venues.
Why token projects may consider Keyrock
Keyrock’s market-making service focuses on:
- Continuous algorithmic pricing
- Cross-exchange liquidity
- Bid-ask spread management
- Order-book depth
- Liquidity during volatile periods
- CEX and DEX market access
- Performance reporting
The firm also specifically mentions support for token launches and complex liquidity requirements.
Another point worth examining is its contractual structure. Keyrock’s published terms reference both a Master Services Agreement and a Master Loan Agreement for market-making services, indicating that token-loan structures can form part of its commercial arrangements. Exact terms depend on the client and contract.
Best suited for: Token teams looking for broad venue coverage, algorithmic liquidity, and a more institutional market-making setup.
What to ask: Which venues will actually be supported for your token, what depth and spread KPIs will be contractually defined, and how token inventory will be controlled.
2. Flowdesk
Flowdesk combines digital-asset trading infrastructure, liquidity provision, OTC trading, and technology.
For token issuers, Flowdesk is particularly relevant because its current token-liquidity offering is designed around the entire token lifecycle, from pre-TGE through TGE and post-TGE.
Its pre-TGE services can include capital-markets initiatives, OTC transactions, and exchange or investor relationships. Around TGE, the company supports CEX connectivity, DeFi capabilities, and on-chain RFQ infrastructure.
Why Flowdesk stands out
Flowdesk publicly explains two major market-making structures:
Loan / Call Option
The issuer provides token inventory through a loan and grants a call option under agreed terms. The market maker can use its own capital on the buy side while managing the token inventory.
Retainer / Market Making as a Service
The issuer pays a recurring fee for the market-making service and provides the necessary trading inventory and quote currency.
Flowdesk explains that these models have different capital requirements, risk profiles, KPIs, and incentive structures.
That transparency makes Flowdesk particularly useful for first-time token teams that need to understand the commercial mechanics before signing.
Best suited for: Projects preparing for a structured TGE and teams that want a clearly defined liquidity program across multiple stages.
What to ask: Whether your proposal is retainer-based, loan-based, or hybrid; who controls the trading strategy; and exactly how liquidity KPIs will be measured.
3. Kairon Labs
Kairon Labs focuses specifically on crypto market making and has positioned itself around supporting token projects both before and after launch.
Its published material describes a full-stack go-to-market approach for projects launching a new token, including exchange listings, market making, and coordination with external blockchain network marketing, and community partners.
This is important because a token launch is rarely just a trading problem.
A project may simultaneously need to coordinate:
- Exchange listings
- Liquidity deployment
- Vesting schedules
- Token distribution
- Community communication
- Marketing
- Market monitoring
Kairon Labs has described both retainer and loan-based models for market-making engagements. The firm has also emphasized measuring liquidity using execution-oriented metrics such as spread, depth, uptime, and slippage rather than simply focusing on headline trading volume.
Why token teams may consider Kairon Labs
Its focus is particularly relevant to projects that need more than a trading bot.
A first-time token team can benefit from having a market-making partner that understands how liquidity interacts with exchange listings, token schedules, and the broader launch process.
Best suited for: Early-stage token projects that want market making to be integrated into a broader launch strategy.
What to ask: What services are handled directly by the market maker and which launch, PR, or community functions depend on third-party partners.
4. Portofino Technologies
Portofino Technologies is a crypto-native market maker and digital-asset liquidity provider with a strong focus on trading infrastructure.
Its market-making offering specifically targets new crypto projects, with support for listings and early trading. The company describes its infrastructure as supporting continuous pricing, deep order books, tight spreads, and 24/7 liquidity.
Portofino also emphasizes transparent reporting around:
- Liquidity
- Spreads
- Trading volumes
- Execution
- Market conditions
The company says it operates across centralized exchanges and provides market making, OTC trading, and treasury-management services. It also has regulatory registrations across several jurisdictions.
A notable point: transparency around deal structures
Portofino has published an explanation of two common market-making structures:
- Loan & Option
- Retainer
It argues that the structure of a mandate can influence incentives and trading behaviour, particularly when market conditions change.
For a token issuer, this is an important consideration because the cheapest-looking arrangement is not automatically the simplest arrangement to manage.
Best suited for: Projects prioritizing institutional infrastructure, liquidity reporting, and clearer market-making governance.
What to ask: How token inventory is monitored, what reporting access you receive, and what happens to liquidity if the token experiences a sharp drawdown.
5. Auros
Auros is a global trading firm and liquidity provider focused on digital assets. Its current offering includes proprietary trading and a dedicated Liquidity Solutions business for token projects.
The company describes its Liquidity Solutions offering as covering areas such as:
- Token launch
- Liquidity strategy
- Institutional market expansion
- Engineering support
- Treasury solutions
Auros also reports more than 40 connected venues and more than 150 employees across its business.
Auros and market-making structures
Auros has publicly discussed the two major commercial structures used in crypto market making:
Retainer-based arrangements and loan-call-option structures.
Its recent Liquidity Mastery series with The Block specifically examines how these models influence incentives, treasury exposure, and liquidity management.
Auros has also appeared in publicly disclosed token market-making arrangements. For example, token transparency disclosures have documented both retainer and historical loan-plus-option structures involving Auros.
Best suited for: Projects looking for a market maker with trading, token-launch, and treasury capabilities under one broader platform.
What to ask: How the firm’s token-launch strategy differs between CEX and DEX liquidity and how the proposed contract handles token loans and options.
6. Caladan
Caladan is a Singapore-based digital-asset market maker and trading firm that has built its business around fragmented crypto liquidity.
The company says it has supported token projects, exchanges, and institutions since 2017, with market making, DeFi expertise, treasury structuring, and other digital-asset services.
Its infrastructure currently spans more than 100 digital assets and a large network of centralized and decentralized venues. Caladan has also launched API-based liquidity infrastructure providing institutional access to aggregated liquidity across numerous assets and venues.
Why Caladan is interesting for token launches
Token liquidity can become fragmented very quickly.
A token may trade simultaneously on:
- Several CEXs
- DEXs
- Different blockchain networks
- OTC venues
- Institutional trading systems
Caladan’s approach focuses on aggregating liquidity and pricing across these fragmented markets.
The firm also highlights structured products, protocol alignment, governance participation, and on-chain infrastructure alongside traditional market making.
Best suited for: Projects expecting liquidity to span multiple venues and chains, especially those with meaningful DeFi components.
What to ask: Which venues and chains will be covered at TGE, how liquidity will be distributed, and whether DEX liquidity is managed separately from CEX liquidity.
7. Kronos Research
Kronos Research is a quantitative trading firm established in 2018, with market making as one of its core businesses.
Its market-making offering explicitly includes token market making, where Kronos says it partners with crypto projects to provide liquidity throughout the token-listing lifecycle.
The firm also operates exchange market making and proprietary quantitative trading.
According to its published company information, Kronos trades across more than 30 centralized exchanges and 10+ decentralized exchanges and provides decentralized market-making services for multiple venues.
Why quantitative infrastructure matters
Crypto markets operate 24/7, and token liquidity can change rapidly.
A quantitative market maker can continuously adjust:
- Bid-ask spreads
- Inventory
- Order placement
- Cross-venue pricing
- Exposure
- Hedging
- Liquidity depth
Kronos has also discussed the role of algorithmic execution, cross-platform liquidity, arbitrage, and dynamic risk management in modern crypto market making.
Best suited for: Token projects that prioritize quantitative trading infrastructure and multi-venue liquidity.
What to ask: How the firm handles liquidity during extreme volatility, token unlocks, exchange outages, and sudden changes in order-book depth.
8. GSR
GSR is one of the more established specialist firms in digital-asset market making, but it remains focused specifically on crypto and tokenized markets rather than operating as a general consumer technology company.
Its current market-making capabilities cover early-stage and established tokens, with liquidity across more than 60 exchanges according to the company’s published information.
GSR also works across:
- Token launches
- DeFi liquidity
- OTC trading
- Treasury solutions
- Derivatives
- Institutional execution
Its DeFi offering includes token-launch liquidity, IDO management, cross-exchange price parity, liquidity provisioning, and treasury management.
Why GSR belongs on a token-launch shortlist
GSR can be relevant when a project expects its liquidity needs to evolve beyond the initial listing period.
A token may move from:
TGE → CEX liquidity → DEX expansion → treasury management → institutional liquidity
Having a partner capable of supporting several of these stages can reduce the need to switch counterparties as the project grows.
Public token disclosures also show GSR participating in loan-based market-making structures, including loan-plus-option arrangements.
Best suited for: Projects looking for broad institutional market access and a longer-term liquidity relationship.
What to ask: Whether the proposed engagement is designed specifically for TGE or intended to continue through later token-market development.
9. B2C2
B2C2 is more strongly associated with institutional crypto liquidity than with startup-focused token-launch consulting, but it can still be relevant for newly listed assets and projects that need institutional-grade execution.
The firm was founded in 2015 and provides liquidity to financial institutions, crypto foundations, protocols, exchanges, and other professional market participants.
Its market-making service specifically mentions crypto foundations, protocols, and newly listed assets.
The firm focuses on:
- Two-sided liquidity
- Order-book depth
- Tight spreads
- Price discovery
- Institutional market access
- OTC execution
- Defined liquidity KPIs
B2C2 also describes its engagement model as bespoke, with performance metrics and KPIs such as uptime, spread targets, and quote volumes defined upfront.
Where B2C2 may fit
B2C2 may be particularly relevant when a token project has moved beyond the earliest launch stage and wants access to institutional liquidity infrastructure.
Its broader OTC and execution capabilities can also become useful when the project needs to manage larger trades without creating unnecessary market impact.
Best suited for: Established or newly listed tokens that want institutional liquidity and execution capabilities.
What to ask: How much of the proposed mandate is dedicated to primary token-launch liquidity versus institutional OTC and secondary-market execution.
10. Wintermute
Wintermute is a crypto-native trading and liquidity firm focused specifically on digital assets.
Its current offering includes OTC trading, liquidity provision, DeFi, algorithmic trading, and venture activities. The company describes its liquidity service as helping create liquid and efficient markets for tokens globally.
Wintermute has also participated in publicly documented token-loan arrangements for market making. For example, the Arbitrum Foundation disclosed a token loan involving Wintermute, while historical DAO proposals have documented loan-based arrangements involving Wintermute and other major market makers.
Why projects consider Wintermute
Its infrastructure covers multiple parts of the crypto market:
- Token liquidity
- OTC execution
- Algorithmic trading
- DeFi
- Institutional counterparties
This can be useful for projects that expect their liquidity requirements to become more sophisticated after TGE.
However, a large market maker is not automatically the right fit for every launch. The actual proposal should still be evaluated based on exchange coverage, liquidity KPIs, inventory requirements, reporting, and contractual incentives.
Best suited for: Projects seeking a highly established crypto-native liquidity partner with broad market infrastructure.
What to ask: How much attention and dedicated liquidity infrastructure will be allocated specifically to your token rather than relying on broad platform coverage.
How Crypto Market-Making Deals Are Usually Structured
Choosing a market maker is only half the decision.
The contract structure can significantly influence the economics and incentives of the relationship.
Two structures appear repeatedly in the crypto market-making industry: retainer-based market making and loan + call option arrangements.
1. Retainer Model
Under a retainer model, the project pays the market maker a recurring fee for its infrastructure and services.
The project typically provides the necessary trading inventory and quote currency, while the market maker operates the liquidity strategy.
The key advantage is predictability.
The project knows approximately how much it is paying for the service instead of giving away potential future token upside through an option structure.
The trade-off is that the project may need to commit more working capital.
Questions to ask
- What is the monthly fee?
- Is there a setup fee?
- Who provides the quote currency?
- Who controls the trading strategy?
- What happens to unused inventory?
- What KPIs are included?
- How frequently are reports provided?
2. Loan + Call Option Model
In a loan-and-call-option arrangement, the token issuer lends tokens to the market maker.
The market maker uses those tokens as trading inventory and receives an option under agreed contractual terms.
If the token price moves above the option’s strike price, the option can have economic value to the market maker.
This structure can reduce the issuer’s upfront cash requirement, but it introduces additional questions around incentives, strike price, expiry, repayment, and token exposure. Flowdesk’s explanation of the model highlights these differences compared with a retainer arrangement.
Questions to ask
- How many tokens are being loaned?
- What percentage of total supply does that represent?
- What is the option strike?
- When does the option expire?
- How are tokens returned?
- What happens if the contract terminates early?
- Is there a maintenance or top-up mechanism?
- How is the market maker’s inventory monitored?
Do not evaluate a loan structure based only on the headline percentage of tokens.
The strike price, expiry, repayment mechanics, collateral arrangements, and liquidity KPIs can materially change the economics.
What KPIs Should You Put in a Market-Making Agreement?
One of the biggest mistakes first-time token teams can make is focusing on trading volume alone.
A token can show large volume while still having poor liquidity.
Instead, consider tracking several metrics.
1. Bid-Ask Spread
How far apart are the best buy and sell prices?
A narrower spread generally means lower immediate trading friction, but spread should always be considered alongside available depth.
2. Order-Book Depth
How much liquidity is actually available around the current price?
A 10-basis-point spread with minimal order size is very different from the same spread backed by meaningful depth.
3. Uptime
How consistently does the market maker maintain quotes?
Crypto trades 24/7, so liquidity availability during weekends, overnight periods, and volatility spikes matters.
4. Slippage
How much does an actual trade move the market price?
This can provide a more realistic picture of execution quality than headline volume.
5. Venue Coverage
Which exchanges and DEXs are actually included?
Do not assume that “global coverage” means your token will receive meaningful liquidity on every major venue.
6. Inventory Reporting
The project should know where its tokens and quote assets are being deployed.
This becomes especially important when native tokens are loaned to a market maker.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a crypto market maker?
A crypto market maker is a trading firm that continuously provides buy and sell liquidity for digital assets. By quoting both sides of a market, market makers can help improve order-book depth, reduce spreads, and facilitate more efficient trading.
2. When should a token project hire a market maker?
Many projects begin discussions before TGE so that exchange connectivity, liquidity strategy, inventory, and reporting are ready before trading starts. The exact timeline depends on the project’s listing schedule and market-making requirements.
3. How much does crypto market making cost?
There is no universal market-making price. Commercial terms vary according to the token, exchange coverage, liquidity requirements, contract length, working capital, and engagement model. Retainer and loan-plus-option structures can have very different economics.
4. What is a loan-and-call-option market-making model?
Under this model, a token issuer loans tokens to the market maker and grants a call option under agreed terms. The market maker uses the inventory for liquidity provision while the option defines part of the economic arrangement.
5. What is a market-making retainer?
A retainer model generally involves the token project paying a recurring service fee for market-making infrastructure and operations. The project may also provide token and quote-currency inventory that is returned according to the contract.
