HIP-005: Establishing a Token Listing and Delisting Governance Mechanism for HTX Exchange
I. Motivation
The HTX DAO’s core mission is to increase the value of the HTX token and improve trading volume and liquidity on the HTX exchange. With its current governance system already well-established, the HTX DAO will now prioritize developing more impactful governance applications. This proposal introduces a governance mechanism that empowers HTX DAO participants to recommend and evaluate token listings and delistings on the HTX platform. The mechanism aims to enhance HTX token utility, improve fee revenue generation, and increase the efficiency of HTX token burns. By involving the community in token lifecycle decisions, the DAO strengthens its role in core exchange operations and fosters sustainable economic value creation.
Key Advantages
The HTX token economic model allocates 50% of the HTX platform’s revenue to token burns, directly influencing HTX’s scarcity and long-term value. And trading fees of cryptocurrencies are a major source of revenue.
Enabling HTX token holders to participate in token listing and delisting governance presents two key advantages:
Increased Burn Efficiency and Volume: By leveraging community consensus to identify promising new tokens and filter out low-quality projects, the HTX DAO can significantly increase HTX token burn efficiency and volume.
Expanded HTX Token Utility and Value : Integrating HTX token into listing and delisting governance expands its utility beyond staking and holding. This participation in trading decisions and asset selection creates genuine governance use cases and potential revenue streams (e.g., increased Launchpool rewards), thereby enhancing the token’s inherent value.
Governance is consensus; consensus is value. A stronger, more engaged community identifies more high-quality projects, generating greater platform fee revenue and enabling stronger HTX token buybacks. This creates a positive feedback loop driven by the DAO.
This crucial step enables the HTX DAO to participate in core exchange operations, marking a milestone in its transition from peripheral governance to core token utility—a significant achievement for HTX as a governance token.
Specification
This proposal outlines the first phase of a token governance framework focused on recommendation-based listing. HTX DAO will work with the HTX team to define governance roles and responsibilities. The DAO’s involvement in this phase is advisory and participatory — not final or binding — with final listing decisions remaining under HTX’s teams.
This pilot mechanism will be jointly established by HTX DAO and the exchange’s asset management team, with a committee overseeing implementation. Token selection will consider project security, compliance, and liquidity.
Risks and Expectations:
This governance mechanism is iterative. If community participation, project performance, or incentive feedback underperform, the committee will initiate enhancement and adjustment process.
The DAO will refine proposal thresholds, review standards, and incentive models based on feedback.
Ultimately, the exchange retains final authority on asset risk and technical compliance to ensure platform security and user protection.
II. Objectives
This proposal aims to establish a governance mechanism for HTX DAO to participate in token listing and delisting decisions, collaboratively creating a clear, systematic, and sustainable community governance framework with the exchange. Specific goals include:
A dedicated token listing and delisting working group, comprised of the HTX DAO Committee and key exchange personnel, will define and determine community participation in listing and delisting decisions.
Establish a governance framework centered around the committee, encompassing a complete process from proposal submission, recommendation, discussion, voting, and execution.
Develop standardized procedures and guidelines for community-driven proposals to recommend or oppose project listings, overseen by the committee.
Lay the groundwork for enhanced interaction between the community and project teams, expanding the scope of DAO asset governance.
This phase focuses on establishing the working mechanism and preparatory processes. Specific rules will be further detailed in a subsequent proposal following the committee’s completion of its initial work.
III. Phased Implementation Plan
| Phase | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Form a governance mechanism task force to define scope and collaboration models between the DAO and HTX. |
| 2 | Release the first draft of the “Token Listing Governance Mechanism” for community review. |
| 3 | Launch the first governance pilot with community-suggested tokens and voting and collect feedback and performance data. |
| 4 | Evaluate pilot results and propose qualified tokens for listing via the HTX listing process. |
| 5 | Explore governance extensions, including staking rewards, tiered fee rebates, and trade mining incentives. |
Note：This proposal only authorizes the initiation of the governance mechanism. Detailed regulations will be proposed and submitted to the DAO for a vote after the committee completes its work.
IV. Governance Model Components
Token Recommendation Mechanism: Community members can submit new token proposals using a standardized template. The DAO governance committee will review proposals and select candidates for public discussion and voting by HTX token holders. Proposal thresholds and fee discount incentives will be implemented to ensure quality participation.
DAO Voting Mechanism: HTX holders will utilize their HTX tokens to vote on the HTX team’s pre-screened token listing recommendations, ultimately determining which tokens are listed on the exchange.
Delisting Monitoring Mechanism: A system of “visualized metrics” will track key factors such as activity, risk, and compliance. The committee will compile this data and initiate votes on delistings as needed.
V. Proposed Synergistic Governance and Community Growth Mechanisms
Leveraging the token listing governance process, HTX DAO can explore these synergistic optimization strategies to improve fee revenue and liquidity:
Tiered Fee Structure for Newly Listed Tokens: Implement a tiered fee structure for tokens successfully listed via community recommendations. Fee rebates will be distributed based on trading volume and voting participation, incentivizing engagement and boosting liquidity.
Launchpool Integration: Project teams can provide early-stage incentive pools via Launchpool, managed by the DAO community based on consensus, enhancing new token liquidity and trading depth.
Community-Driven Marketing: The community can initiate marketing campaigns, AMAs, joint promotions, trading competitions, and other initiatives to increase awareness and consensus around newly listed tokens.
VI. Proposal Value and Expected Outcomes
This proposal bridges the gap between core platform revenue generation and DAO governance by enabling community participation in asset listing and delisting decisions.
Core Value:
Economic Value:
Increased trading volume and fee revenue from actively traded tokens.
Enhanced HTX burn efficiency, increasing scarcity and long-term value.
Increased HTX utility through Launchpool and fee incentive programs driven by collaboration between projects and the community.
Governance Value:
Grants HTX holders real governance power, establishing a bottom-up consensus-driven process.
Introduces governance-related Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanisms. Future incentives could be based on governance participation (e.g., points, voting activity), further enhancing governance engagement and token utility.
Ecosystem Value:
Creates a collaborative platform for projects and the community, fostering a synergistic governance culture.
Improves the quality of listed projects by leveraging proposals to drive liquidity, consensus, and visibility.
Expected Outcomes:
Implementation of the initial governance mechanism and processes, establishing a sustainable community participation pathway.
Expansion of HTX token utility, transitioning from voting to incentive-based rewards.
Fostering deeper interaction between the community and projects, promoting platform asset governance, and enhancing platform revenue.
HTX DAO is evolving from a participatory community to a decision-making ecosystem governor.
This proposal expands governance rights for HTX holders and, through integration with the burn mechanism and fee model, builds a positive economic cycle for HTX.
We aim to use governance to drive revenue, revenue to support holders, and consensus to energize the platform.
Token listings will become not merely project selections, but a starting point for community and value co-creation.