Marketing a token: what you can say

Launching a token means, sooner or later, communicating it: website, white paper, social media, campaigns, community. And this is exactly where many technically sound projects get into trouble. Marketing a token is not open ground: what you can say depends on what the token is, on who the audience is and on what promises you make. Poorly framed communication is not just a reputational risk: it can change the very qualification of the operation and attract regulatory consequences.

Communication follows the token’s qualification

The starting point is not the message, but the nature of the token. Swiss practice essentially distinguishes between:

• Payment tokens — designed as a means of payment or exchange, with no claim on an issuer.
• Utility tokens — granting access to a service or a function of a platform.
• Investment (asset) tokens — representing an economic right, a participation, a claim or a yield promise; they are the closest to financial instruments and the most regulated.

The permitted communication changes radically depending on the category. And beware: it is the content of the communication that can shift the qualification. If you present a utility token while promising a gain, you are effectively communicating it as an investment — with all the rules that follow.

What to avoid: the promises that qualify

Some messages are particularly dangerous because they transform the token into something that entails stricter obligations:

• Promises of yield or appreciation. “The value will rise”, “guaranteed return”, price projections: they shift the token toward the investment area and can trigger prospectus obligations and conduct rules.
• Guarantees you cannot keep. Absolute security, absence of risk, guaranteed return of capital.
• Comparisons with financial instruments (“like a share, but better”) that suggest a security-like nature without formally being one.
• Investment-solicitation tones aimed at the general public, when the project is not set up to do so.

The audience matters as much as the message

The same communication can be acceptable toward a restricted circle of qualified parties and problematic if directed at the general public. Whoever communicates must know who they are addressing: professional investors, a restricted circle, the general public. The channel (an open social media campaign vs. targeted communication) and the reach affect the obligations. A public offering carries information duties that a restricted placement does not.

The basic rules of correct communication

Beyond qualification, there are principles that should always be respected:

1. Truth and completeness. No false or misleading statements; no partial information that hides the risks.
2. Risks in plain view. Communication must make the risks evident, not just the opportunities.
3. Consistency with the documentation. Website, white paper and marketing materials must say the same thing: inconsistencies are a warning signal.
4. Anti-money laundering upstream. If the operation touches flows of assets, the AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Act) safeguards must be set up before, not after, the campaign.

The recurring mistake: thinking of marketing last

Many projects design the product, then entrust communication to someone who doesn’t know the regulatory perimeter, and discover once the campaign is under way that they have “requalified” the token through their words. The correct sequence is the opposite: first establish what the token is and who you are addressing, then build communication consistent with that perimeter. Marketing is not the final phase disconnected from the rest: it is part of the qualification.

How SIH ONE approaches the topic

SIH ONE handles structuring and consulting: token qualification, analysis of the audience and channels, review of the consistency between documentation and communication, setting up anti-money laundering safeguards. Where the activity requires an authorization or regulated obligations (public offering, prospectus obligations), the regulated activities go through authorized partners. The goal is for you to communicate the token knowing, before publishing, what you can and cannot say.

This content is informational and does not constitute legal or regulatory advice. The framework evolves: every project must be verified in the specific case.

Are you preparing to launch a token and want to communicate it without getting the perimeter wrong? Let’s talk: we qualify the token and set up consistent communication, with the right partners where authorization is needed.