This article is not listing advice and it is not a statement of any exchange's current policy. Liquidity thresholds change, and many of them are not public. Nothing here promises that meeting a checklist produces a listing, keeps a listing, or removes a warning label. No exchange rulebook was opened for the numbers below, because this article does not contain those numbers.

Quick answer

CEX listing liquidity requirements usually mean a set of measurable conditions: two-sided quotes, depth near the mid, a spread ceiling, some presence or activity standard, and how long those conditions must hold. The actual numbers are set per venue and per pair and they change, so the binding figures are the ones in that exchange's current written terms or in your listing email, not a blog roundup. A named liquidity provider is often part of the ask, and EasyMM cannot quote another venue's private threshold.

Teams search this topic while a listing manager is asking for "liquidity support" without attaching a definition. The useful move is to send a short list of questions and to leave every number blank until the venue supplies it in writing. Copying a depth target from a thread, or from another exchange, is not a plan. It is how two venues end up with one number that matches neither test.

If you are still before the listing, shape the book inside pre-TGE planning. If the pair is already live, ongoing coverage sits on market making. If a warning or special-treatment label is already on the token, stop treating a checklist as a cure and read delisting help. This page will not rebuild the venue-by-venue label guides.

Quick definitions

These are the terms a venue will use when it describes its liquidity test. Read them before the questions that follow.

Listing requirements versus ongoing maintenance. The application is one test. Staying listed is another. A book that looks fine on listing day and then goes quiet is still being measured. Assume the test does not stop when the pair goes live.

Spread. The gap between the best bid and the best ask. Venues that care about it will define a ceiling, and they will define the conditions (normal versus stressed) under which that ceiling applies. There is no single ceiling in this article.

Depth. Size available within a band around the mid price, usually in a stated currency. "The book looks thick" is not a depth measure. The band and the currency are the definition. Without them, a depth number from another project is meaningless.

Quote presence or uptime. The share of an agreed window during which quotes were actually up. The window has a timezone. A desk that quotes your morning and is dark during the venue's review window can fail a test it thought it was passing.

Traded activity. Some venues also watch whether the pair trades, under their own activity test. That is the venue's test. It is not an invitation to manufacture activity, and this article will not describe how anyone might do that.

Designated or named market maker. A firm the project identifies to the venue as responsible for quoting. That firm is not the same thing as organic holders. Holders can trade. A named desk is an operating role you put in the application if the venue asks for one.

Special-treatment or assessment labels. A consequence path when a venue decides a pair has missed its maintenance test. The labels differ by exchange. For a comparison of warning systems, see how delisting warning systems compare. For a single-venue label discussion, the Bitget ST article stands on its own. Do not read either post as a universal rule, and do not read this article as a replacement for them.

Questions to get in writing before you sign

Send these to the exchange or to your listing manager before you agree a market-making scope. Ask for the answer in writing. A call note is not a threshold.

Which pairs are in scope? Spot only, or also other markets? One quote asset, or several?

Both sides, or one? A bid with no offer, or an offer with no bid, is not the two-sided book most maintenance tests describe. Confirm which side they measure.

How is depth measured? What band around mid, and in which currency or unit? A band that is not written down is not a band you can staff.

What is the spread ceiling, and under what conditions? Ask separately for normal conditions and for stressed conditions, and ask how the venue decides which regime you are in.

What presence or uptime window applies, and in which timezone? Include how downtime is counted when the venue itself is down.

Is there an activity or volume test? If yes, ask for the definition in their words. If no, write "none stated." Do not fill the blank from a forum.

How fast does a breach become a warning, and what is the path after that? You want the sequence: notice, cure period if any, and what a continued miss can lead to. Do not invent a day count. If they will not write it, leave the answer blank.

Must a market maker be named in the application? If yes, ask what the venue wants to see about that firm, and whether the name can change later without a new review.

What happens to inventory if the pair is halted or delisted? Who can withdraw, on what timetable, and which balances are frozen. This is an operational question, not a prediction that you will be delisted.

Who at the project receives the alert? A warning that lands in a shared inbox with no owner is a warning you will read late.

A preventive-care article on this site discusses how venues watch books over time. Do not lift thresholds from that piece, or from any other blog post, into your application. If you need a number, get it from the venue and date the email.

Application facts are not liquidity facts

Listing packs also ask for supply tables, audits, team contacts, and legal documents. Those are application facts. They matter, and they are not liquidity requirements. Mixing them into one checklist makes both jobs vague. Keep the data room on its own track. A live preparation guide is how to prepare your token for exchange listings. Use it for the application file. Use this article for the liquidity questions only. For which venue to approach first, see tier 1 vs tier 2 exchanges. For venue-specific expectations, see how to get listed on Binance and what OKX expects from listing projects.

When a listing manager says "send your liquidity plan," they usually want the second file: pairs, how you will quote, who is named, and how you will report the same fields the venue measures. They do not want a restatement of your white paper.

Make the market-making scope mirror the questions

Once the venue has answered, the desk's scope should use the same words. Venues, pairs, coverage hours, and the metrics in the weekly pack should be the metrics the exchange said it watches. If the exchange defined depth as size inside a band, the report should show size inside that band, not a different band that looks better. What a useful weekly pack contains is covered in what a crypto market making report should show.

KPI names (spread, depth, uptime) are defined in the KPI article. Read that when you need the measurement vocabulary. Do not re-derive it here, and do not paste a universal target next to the definition. The target is the venue's written test, or the band you and the desk agreed after you had that test.

Two CEXs can apply different tests to the same token on the same day. One may care about presence in a named window. Another may care about depth in a different band. A single global depth target copied from a social post will miss at least one of them. Note the difference in this scope. How you then place a fixed inventory across those books is a separate decision. Do it after you know each test, not before. The placement method is in multi-venue market making: splitting inventory.

What an operator can do, and what it cannot

On the service pages, EasyMM's work is order book coverage, reporting, and, if a pair is already in trouble, a recovery plan discussed with the exchange. That is an operating role. It is not a promise that an application will be approved, that a pair will stay listed, or that a label will be removed. The venue decides those outcomes. A named market maker can help you meet a written test you have actually been given. It cannot supply the test the venue refused to write down, and it should not invent one.

If you are comparing quotes while the listing is still prospective, ask each firm to map its scope to the question list above, with every number left blank until the exchange supplies it. A firm that fills those gaps with "industry standard" figures is guessing. A firm that leaves them blank and asks for the listing email is doing the job.

Do you need a named market maker to get listed?

You need one if the venue's application or its maintenance rules say so. Ask that question and write the answer down. Some venues want a firm named before the pair goes live. Some do not. Organic holders are not a substitute for a named role when the form requires a name, and the absence of a named firm is not, by itself, a prediction that you will be delisted. Scare lines in that direction are not evidence.

If the venue does want a name, the scope you sign with that firm should repeat the venue's pairs, hours, and definitions. A market maker who has not seen the listing email is guessing at the test. Show them the email. If the email has no numbers, both of you should keep the numbers blank and ask again, rather than filling them from memory of another exchange.

How monitoring usually shows up after the pair is live

The test continues. In practice, teams see some mix of the following, and the mix is venue-specific:

A written maintenance note or a dashboard the exchange can see, covering the fields they named (spread, depth, presence, activity).

An alert to the project contact when a field misses the written test. Who receives it is one of the questions above. If you do not know, you will find out by missing one.

A periodic review, often in the venue's own cycle, that looks back over the window rather than at a single afternoon.

A status or label path if misses persist. The path differs by exchange. Use the warning-systems comparison for the family of labels, and the venue's own notice for your case.

Keep the email or policy that states the test, and date it. When the desk's weekly pack and the venue's note use different bands, the dated venue document wins until you have a newer one. Blog posts, including this one, do not win.

Two listings mean two files. Do not merge them into one internal target and hope both venues meant the same band. Staff each test. Place inventory only after those tests are written. A global number chosen first will not survive contact with the second exchange.

Keep the liquidity file separate from the pitch

When you answer the venue, send two attachments and do not merge them. The application file holds supply, audits, contacts, and legal documents. The liquidity file holds only the blank-then-filled questions from this article: pairs, depth definition, spread ceiling and the conditions around it, presence window and timezone, any activity test, whether a market maker is named, the warning path, and the project contact. If a number is not in the venue's writing, it is not in the file.

Update the liquidity file when the venue sends a newer email. Date both versions. A market-making scope signed against an old band will report the wrong thing, and the weekly pack will not match what the exchange measures. That mismatch is an ops problem you can avoid. It is not a reason to claim the listing is safe, and it is not a reason to claim a label will come off.

Question checklist

This article does not answer these questions for any venue. For each one, record two things from the exchange: its written answer, and where the result will be measured. That place may be the exchange's own back office rather than your dashboard. Leave an answer blank until it arrives in writing.

1. Pairs in scope. Which pairs and quote assets the venue will measure.

2. Depth definition. The band around mid, and the currency or unit.

3. Spread ceiling. The ceiling, and the conditions under which it applies.

4. Presence or uptime expectation. The window, the timezone, and how venue downtime is counted.

5. Activity or volume test. The definition in the venue's own words, or "none stated."

6. Named market maker. Whether one must be named, and what the venue wants to see about that firm.

7. Warning and delisting timeline. The sequence from notice to any cure period, and what a continued miss can lead to.

8. Alert recipient. Who at the project receives the alert.

What not to take from this page

Some figures and claims are deliberately left out of this article. Do not fill those gaps from it.

No numeric spread cap, no depth in a currency amount, no minimum daily volume, and no "delists in N days." Those figures are venue-specific and were not verified here.

No listing-fee amounts. They were not verified, and they are not liquidity requirements.

No claim that listing without a market maker means you will be delisted. Some venues ask for a named firm. That is a question, not a threat.

No universal rule lifted from one exchange's label and applied to every other CEX.

Conclusion

CEX listing requirements are set per venue and often per pair. Send the questions above, keep every number blank until the exchange answers in writing, date the answers, and make the market-making scope and the weekly report use the same definitions the venue measures.

Before you list, use pre-TGE to put liquidity design next to the listing plan. For a book that is already live, use market making and align reporting to the test you were given. If a label is already on the token, use delisting help. The broader map is on services, with shorter answers on the FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are CEX liquidity requirements public?

Some venues publish parts of them. Many thresholds live in a listing agreement, a maintenance policy, or an email to your listing manager, and they change. If you cannot point to a current written line, you do not have the requirement yet. A blog figure is not a substitute.

Is it enough to look liquid on listing day?

No. Listing-day books are one moment. Maintenance tests run after that. Plan for the window the venue named, not for a screenshot from the open.

What is the difference between depth and volume?

Depth is size resting on the book within a defined band of mid. Volume is what actually traded. A pair can show trades with a thin book, or a deep book with quiet prints. Ask which one the venue measures, and do not let one number stand in for the other.

Does every exchange use the same spread rule?

No. Spread ceilings, when they exist, differ by venue, by pair, and by market conditions. There is no cross-venue standard in this article. Get each ceiling in writing.

Do I have to name a market maker in the listing application?

Only if that venue asks you to. Ask the question directly. A named firm is an operating role. It is not the same thing as having holders, and it is not proof the application will be accepted.

Can I copy another exchange's liquidity sheet?

No. Two venues can test the same token differently. Use each venue's own written answers. A shared internal target is fine only after you have checked it against both tests, not before.

What if we are already in a warning or ST-style status?

Treat that as a recovery conversation with the exchange, not as a gap you close by rereading a general checklist. Start with delisting help, and use the warning-systems comparison only to understand the label family. Do not expect a blog checklist to remove a status.