When I've thought about launching a token over the past few years, I always thought it would be in the hugamonster universe. I never found a good enough reason to do it, so I didn't.
Contrary to popular belief, hugamonsters are not always the smiley jokesters you see on the internet. They have a full range of emotions. So when the team of the token that rugged me called me a rookie airdrop seller, and then kept right on scamming others with zero hesitation or recourse, this hugamonster was PISSED.
(sidenote, I bought their damn token thinking I was helping someone)
I did what any reasonable hugamonster would do - I added rookie airdrop seller to my bio and turned the experience into art. Thus, sad trombone (ticker: WOMPWOMP) was born, in a matter of hours.
If I'd taken time to think about it, this wouldn't have happened because I'm a planner and this was very not planned.
How did I launch the token?
I used WAGMI fairlaunch like all the cool kids are doing these days. Fairlaunch is a frame in Warpcast, pinned in the /fairlaunch channel. It literally takes five minutes to launch a token.
To do this, you'll need:
A name for your token
A ticker name for your token
An emoji
Some ETH on Base to buy some tokens upon launch
Some art to go with your token - this isn't mandatory but it makes sharing it more fun!
Important things to note:
100% of the tokens go into the liquidity pool, which is locked by the WAGMI contract. This makes your token rug proof - you can't sell all the tokens, even if you want to. You can only sell the tokens you buy, either at launch or later on. If I had to do this over again, I would have bought more than 0.02 ETH (about 18,000,000 WOMPWOMP) because I was quickly priced out of my own token, whoopsie! This is why they have you buy tokens at launch - snipers and bots are waiting to scoop up your tasty new tokens and then flip them during the initial hype.
You can't fiddle with details, like token supply. Your max token amount is determined by the contract - 1,000,000,000. You can't burn tokens to reduce the supply/increase the value. If this is important to you, it's better to hire someone to write your contract or learn how to DIY.
I got a frame error when I launched WOMPWOMP, so I had to track the contract address down on BaseScan via the tokens that landed in my wallet. NBD, unless you're not familiar with how to do that.
The first thing you want to do after launching your token is share it in your socials immediately so your friendos can snag some early. Then share it in the /fairlaunch channel.
This is when people are gonna start telling you what to do. They're going to ask you for a telegram and/or discord and a twitter. And then they're gonna ask you to get it on DexScreener, CoinGecko and the like. They're going to hype the hell out of your token and you will have 238947459280549824578452 casts to respond to and it will be impossible to reply to them all. If you're a replyguy this may be stressful.
I was NOT ready for how much work there was to do after I launched WOMPWOMP, and some of those things -- telegram and discord specifically -- are not things I'm interested in doing.
Also, I had no idea what I was doing so people telling me what the next steps were was incredibly helpful. I'm beyond grateful for the folks who showed up in my DMs and not only walked me through the steps, but also did some of the legwork for me.
Ideally you'll have some of this in the works before you launch your token (I do it the hard way so you don't have to!)(a non-exhaustive list):
Set up a telegram or discord if you would like to.
Set up twitter if you would like to.
Buy a domain name and build a website which includes information about the token - the contract address at a minimum, and a description of what the token is and does.
Add liquidity if you want to, though with this kind of contract I'm not sure it's strictly necessary.
Think about writing a brief whitepaper. I'm skipping this step - this post will serve as my whitepaper. I don't know if this is recommended or not, it's just how I'm doing it.
List the token on DexScreener. At the time I launched WOMPWOMP, this cost $300 USD, which I was able to pay with crypto. Get on DexScreener first, before you try to get it on any other dexes, because the other ones have application requirements that you won't be able to meet immediately. Plus, you'll be able to easily share a chart that shows everyone how efficiently your money printer is brrrrrrring.
Apply to have your token listed on BaseMarketCap and CoinGecko. At the time of this writing, WOMPWOMP's application to CoinGecko was denied - not because there's anything wrong with my token but because (I think) I don't have a fully fleshed out infrastructure or public-facing socials.
Reach out to Rainbow wallet, tell them about your new coin, and send them token art (you'll need a square png file for this). I don't know what needs to be done to have the value of a token show up in Rainbow - it's something I need to look into.
Ditto for Coinbase wallet.
I'm getting tired just writing this.
Provide some graphic elements as png files for the community to make memes with.
Hype the everlovin fuck out of your token.
The first 24 hours will be bonkers and possibly stressful, especially if the numbers go down. WOMPWOMP
I live-casted my freaking out for everyone's entertainment here: https://warpcast.com/jensalittleloopy/0x69a3db85
Don't mind me, I'm just over here having the #10 token on DexScreener 23 hours after launch. Eeeeeek!
HYDRATE!
SLEEP!
EAT LEAFY GREEN VEGETABLES!
This initial hype will not last, and you will be able to rest soon, I promise.
Hopefully if you're thinking about launching a token you're in it for the long haul and are committed to growing it and a community around it.
I'm happy to help you with any of these steps if you need it! I'm using this experience as a learning tool and also as a teaching tool. There's no one right way to launch a token, but WAGMI makes it so easy I think it's important to share all of the other little things that go into making your token successful!
NGL, being mentioned in the same breath as legends like Augusti, Animated, Nomadicframe, and Raz all of whom have been at this way longer than I have, felt pretty sweet! ❤
But there's work still to be done with WOMPWOMP and I'm digging in!
Done, so far:
DexScreener listing.
CoinGecko application, need to revisit and reapply after I build out.
Twitter, which I didn't want to do but makes sense because Farcaster is token-gated and the dexes like public visibility, understandably.
An airdrop/free mint for /hugamonsters and WOMPWOMPians. If you hold WOMPWOMP but haven't yet joined /hugamonsters, hop in there. I'm going to airdrop to the channel and offer a free mint for token holders. I'm doing it this way because I don't want to feed the bots art.
A plan for the website (sadtrombonewompwomp.com - say it out loud it's fun!).
A plan for how I can use WOMPWOMP for good. It's already helped a friendo who got rugged yesterday. I think it can do more. (This is not a roadmap, this is Jen-thinks.)
Collaboration opportunities.
I'd love to get to a point where the community is self-sustaining, so I need to figure out how to make that happen.
Now that things have settled down, I'm working at hugamonster pace. Art and now token founder are what I do in my "free" time when I'm not momming and working at my job-job. Being well rested, exercised, and hydrated are important to me and important to the longevity of this project.
I'm beyond grateful for my friends who supported me in this surprise token launch, whether it was by buying WOMPWOMP, sharing the story, reaching out to check on how I was managing, offering assistance - you name it, I am probably the most supported token launching hugamonster in the history of ever. I'm so lucky. Thank you! ❤
Will leave you with the token details if you'd like to join in the fun:
Name: sad trombone
Ticker: WOMPWOMP
CA: 0xf4ffE72AF996335e0140c06F23FC6b69e257DeEc
LP locked
I'll do a meet the founder post later this week, but the short story is that I've been in crypto since January 2021. My first collection was 1/1 NFTs + physical crocheted hugamonsters which now live all over the world! I've minted work in lots of different mediums on ETH, Tezos (OBJKT 10396 iykyk), and ALGO, deployed a Manifold contract, have had work in countless shows both in NFTs (NFT Bali next month!) and IRL...the past three years have been a long decade and I'm just getting started! 😜
I'm here to beep the boops and learn and most importantly, teach as I learn so that others can do it more easily.
Update: as things turn out I AM a rookie airdrop seller and wasn't actually rugged, and talk about that here: Hugamonster Field Notes | OMG I am so embarassed 🤦♀ (paragraph.xyz)
