Creating Tokens on XChain

Anyone can create a digital token on Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Dogecoin using XChain — no programming skills required. This guide explains what tokens are, how to configure them, and what choices you make when bringing a new token into existence.

What Is a Token?

A token is a digital asset that you define and control. Think of it like issuing your own currency, loyalty points, membership pass, or digital collectible — except instead of a bank or company managing the records, the blockchain does. Every token balance, every transfer, every rule change is recorded permanently on Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Dogecoin.

Once created, your token can be sent between addresses, traded on the built-in exchange, distributed to thousands of people at once, or used as the basis for a business application. The rules you set at creation determine what anyone — including you — can do with it later.

Choosing a Token Name (Ticker)

Every token has a ticker — a short name that identifies it, similar to a stock symbol. Tickers on XChain can be 1 to 250 characters long.

A few things to know when choosing a name:

Names are unique per blockchain. If someone already created a token called GOLD on Bitcoin, you cannot create another GOLD on Bitcoin. You could, however, create GOLD on Litecoin, since each chain has its own independent namespace.
First come, first served. The first valid creation wins the name. There is no registration process or approval — it is simply a race to be first.
Case does not matter for lookups. MYTOKEN, mytoken, and MyToken all refer to the same ticker. The name is stored as you typed it, but searches are case-insensitive.
Certain characters are not allowed. The ticker cannot contain |, ;, ., or /. These are reserved for the protocol’s own formatting.
Some names are reserved. The tickers BTC, LTC, DOGE, and XCHAIN are reserved for the platform itself and cannot be issued by anyone except the platform’s designated accounts.

Sub-Tokens

If you add a parent token name followed by a period and a suffix — for example MYTOKEN.SILVER — you create a sub-token. Sub-tokens are cheaper to create than top-level tokens and are useful for organizing related assets under a common brand.

Think of a parent token like a company, and sub-tokens like individual product lines under that company. The naming connection is a convention — owning MYTOKEN does not automatically grant you control over MYTOKEN.SILVER, but you can create sub-tokens under any top-level name you own.

Setting Token Properties

When you create a token, you configure a set of properties that define how it behaves. You do not have to set all of them at once — most can be updated later unless you choose to lock them.

Supply

Max Supply is the ceiling on how many tokens can ever exist. Once that ceiling is reached through minting, no more can be created. Think of it like a gold mine with a finite amount of gold — once it is dug out, there is no more.

Setting a max supply of zero means the supply is unlimited, which is appropriate for some use cases (like reward points that grow over time) but not others (like collectibles where scarcity matters).

Decimals

Decimals control how divisible your token is. A token with 0 decimals can only exist in whole units. A token with 8 decimals can be divided into hundred-millionths, like Bitcoin itself.

If you are creating a loyalty points system where you only want whole points, set decimals to 0. If you are creating a financial instrument that might be fractionally owned, higher decimals give you flexibility.

Description

A short text description of your token. This appears in explorers and wallets. Keep it clear and accurate — it is the first thing people will read when they encounter your token.

Minting Rules

Minting is the act of creating new tokens and adding them to circulation. You set the rules for how minting works at creation time.

Mint Supply: How many tokens are created each time someone mints. For example, if mint supply is 100, every mint operation adds exactly 100 tokens.
Max Mint: The maximum number of times minting can happen. This lets you cap total mints separately from total supply — useful when you want a fixed number of minting events even if supply math would allow more.
Mint Start Block / Mint Stop Block: You can schedule a minting window. Before the start block, minting is not allowed. After the stop block, minting closes. This is how you run a timed token launch — a window opens, people mint during it, and it closes automatically.
Per-Address Limit: You can cap how many times a single address can mint. This prevents one person from minting everything in a public launch.

If you want to be the only person who can mint (a controlled issuance), you keep the token locked down and mint from your own address. If you want a public fair launch where anyone can mint, you set open minting rules and let the community participate.

Access Control

You can restrict who is allowed to receive your token.

Allow List: Only addresses on this list can receive the token. Everyone else is blocked. This is useful for compliance-restricted assets, private token distributions, or anything where you need to know exactly who holds your token.

Block List: Addresses on this list are barred from receiving the token. Everyone else can receive it normally. This is useful for blocking specific bad actors while keeping the token open to the general public.

Both lists reference named lists you define on-chain using the LIST action. You can update these lists at any time — unless you choose to lock them permanently.

Building Trust: Locking Parameters

One of the most powerful features in XChain is the ability to lock a parameter permanently. Once locked, that parameter can never be changed — not by you, not by anyone.

Why would you want to lock your own token? Because it builds trust.

Imagine you are launching a collectible token and you tell buyers “only 10,000 will ever exist.” That is a promise. If you lock the max supply, it becomes a verifiable, unbreakable guarantee written into the blockchain itself. Buyers do not have to trust your word — they can verify the lock themselves.

Parameters you can lock include:

Supply settings (max supply, mint supply, max mint count) — proves the token cannot be inflated
Description — proves the token’s description cannot be swapped out
Allow and block lists — proves the access rules cannot be changed
Callback settings — proves the recall terms cannot be altered after the fact
Owner transfer — proves the token’s ownership can never be transferred to another address

Locking is a one-way door. Think carefully before locking anything. Once it is done, there is no going back — not even for you.

Token Ownership

The address that creates a token owns it. The owner can:

Update any unlocked parameters
Lock parameters permanently
Transfer ownership to a different address

Transferring ownership is done through an update to the token, changing the registered owner. If the owner transfer lock is set, ownership can never be moved — useful when you want to provably commit a token to a permanent, uncontrolled state.

Fees

Creating a token costs a fee paid in XCHAIN — the platform’s gas token. XCHAIN is required for most write operations on the platform, similar to how Ethereum uses gas. The exact fee varies by blockchain (Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Dogecoin) and may change over time.

You do not need to own the underlying coin (BTC, LTC, DOGE) in large amounts to create a token — you just need enough to cover the standard transaction fee to the miner plus your XCHAIN gas fee.

After Creation

Once your token exists, you can:

Mint more supply (subject to the rules you set)
Send tokens to other addresses
Update any parameters you did not lock
List it on the built-in exchange (see the Trading guide)
Airdrop it to a list of addresses at once
Pay dividends to all holders proportionally
Sleep it temporarily to pause all trading
Callback (recall) tokens from all holders if you configured a callback at creation

Your token lives on the blockchain permanently. Even if every XChain node went offline, the token records remain embedded in Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Dogecoin transactions forever.

See also: Trading | Use Cases | FAQ

Based on XChain Platform by Dankest, LLC – https://dankest.llc

Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0-or-later) with a commercial license available for proprietary use.

You may use, modify, and distribute this material under the terms of the License. See LICENSE and NOTICE for full terms. See the licensing overview.