Cryptocurrency exchanges have historically been predatory towards projects, trying to extract the maximum value from them rather than creating true partnerships. Many top exchanges charge 6-figure listing fees, then charge 6-figure marketing fees on top of the 6-figure listing fees. Even lesser-known exchanges charge 5-figure listing fees. Having listings be a cash grab for exchanges creates problematic incentives:

• Exchanges are rewarded for listing as many tokens as possible, regardless of the quality of those projects.

• Projects, encouraged to seek top-tier listings, often give up valuable funds that could otherwise be spent on building, marketing, and other efforts that are more beneficial to their long-term success.

Exchanges then continue to profit from the trading of the projects' tokens. If the project is wildly successful, the exchange makes huge profits from trading fees on the token because of the success of the project.

Is this right? It may be the status quo in crypto, but we don't think this is how exchanges should behave. That is why Deepwaters is proud to announce that it will have both zero listing fees and give projects a 10% revenue share on net trading fees from the trading of their token on Deepwaters.

We believe this creates great incentives. Specifically:

• We are incentivized solely to list quality projects who are going to do well in the long term.

• Projects are incentivized to list with Deepwaters.

• Projects are incentivized to promote their Deepwaters listings.

• Traders are encouraged to trade the tokens of their favorite projects on Deepwaters, as they will be directly supporting those projects by doing so.

Eventually we will implement a modest application fee for projects interested in being listed on Deepwaters to cover the cost of due diligence and ensure that we remain incentivized to perform meaningful, quality DD on the projects we consider for listing. That will be implemented at a TBD date in the future.

We have always been on a mission to solve some of the biggest problems in crypto. If we can solve some smaller, less known ones along the way, we're all for it. Hopefully we can create a better, more fair environment for new and growing crypto projects!

If you are with a project looking for an exchange who will treat you like a partner instead of a bag of money, please contact listings@deepwaters.xyz with information on the project, team, tokenomics, and specifying the chain your token is on.