What Not to Do
The errors that kill most new ERC-20 launches, ranked by damage. With the fix for each.
Reading order: top to bottom. The first three mistakes account for the majority of failed launches. If you avoid only those, you are already ahead of most.
The mistake: You add ETH and tokens to a Uniswap pool but skip the LP lock step. The LP tokens sit in your wallet. From the outside, this looks identical to a planned rug-pull - the creator can drain the pool any time.
The fix: After creating the Uniswap pool, send the LP tokens to a time-locked contract via Unicrypt or Team Finance. Lock for 6 to 12 months minimum. Share the lock URL on every channel. See Uniswap listing guide.
The mistake: An unverified contract on Etherscan shows raw bytecode instead of readable source code. Traders cannot audit what the contract actually does. Every serious wallet shows a warning. Almost no one buys an unverified token.
The fix: Submit your Solidity source code via the Etherscan "Verify and Publish" flow within minutes of deployment. ETHTokenLaunch provides the source code with every deployment. See Etherscan verification guide.
The mistake: Setting decimals to 9 or 6 when 18 was intended (or vice versa) makes balances display incorrectly in wallets and break compatibility with some DeFi protocols. Cannot be fixed without redeploying.
The fix: Use 18 unless you have a specific reason (stablecoin-style: 6; indivisible tokens: 0). Triple-check the value before clicking Deploy. See our parameters guide. See Parameters guide.
The mistake: Calling your token "USDC" or using a top-50 symbol creates immediate confusion. Search results from Google and CoinGecko surface the existing token, not yours. Buyers buy the wrong contract.
The fix: Before deploying, search Etherscan and CoinGecko for your proposed name and symbol. Pick something unique. Even close matches (e.g. "USDX" when USDX already exists) confuse buyers. See Parameters guide.
The mistake: You renounce ownership before realising you needed admin access for something (changing fee, removing limit, updating metadata). Cannot be undone. Now the function you needed is permanently locked out.
The fix: For a standard fixed-supply ERC-20 with no custom admin functions, renouncing is safe and recommended (ETHTokenLaunch handles this). For contracts with intentional admin powers, audit the contract first and renounce only after you have used every admin function you needed. See Renouncing guide.
The mistake: You deploy the contract, add liquidity, and tell people to buy - but there is no Twitter history, no Telegram group, no audience. Nobody buys because there is no narrative, no trust, no FOMO.
The fix: Spend 2-4 weeks building socials before launch. Twitter posts, Telegram group, simple website. Real engagement, not bots. By launch day you should already have 50-500 people watching. See Marketing playbook.
The mistake: Top-10 holder concentration is a primary RugCheck signal. If 95% of supply sits in the creator wallet, every scanner flags the token as high risk. Traders will not buy.
The fix: Distribute the supply across treasury, liquidity, community/airdrop, and team before launch. Top-10 holders combined under 50% (excluding LP and dead wallet) is the goal in the first 30 days. See Tokenomics guide.
The mistake: You launch without running your contract through RugCheck, TokenSniffer, or Honeypot.is. Then a red flag traders see (that you could have fixed in 5 minutes) tanks your launch.
The fix: Before announcing publicly, paste your contract address into rugcheck.xyz, tokensniffer.com, and honeypot.is. Address every flag, then announce. See Security checklist.
The mistake: Many projects pour all their energy into launch day and have no plan for day +2 onwards. Volume collapses, the community goes silent, the token becomes one of the millions of dead ERC-20s on Etherscan.
The fix: Plan content and milestones for at least the first 60 days. Weekly community calls, regular Twitter posting, partnership announcements, listing applications. Launch day is the start, not the win. See Marketing playbook.
The mistake: Saying or implying that holders will profit creates legal exposure (the FTC, SEC, FCA, ASA, and most other regulators take these claims seriously) and signals desperation to the audience you actually want.
The fix: Talk about the project, the technology, the community, the roadmap. Never the price. Never returns. Use disclaimers where appropriate. Serious projects describe what the token is, not what it will be worth.
ETHTokenLaunch deploys a standard OpenZeppelin ERC-20 with sane defaults: 18 decimals, fixed supply, optional one-click renounce. Eight of the ten mistakes above cannot happen if you use the default flow.