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How do you create your own cryptocurrency?

By Ben Tabas, Intrica Research · Updated · US

Answer

You create a cryptocurrency by issuing a token on an existing blockchain or by building a new blockchain with its own coin. The token route is simpler. On Ethereum it means deploying an ERC-20 smart contract, which ethereum.org, updated July 9, 2026, describes as the standard for fungible tokens. Deploying costs gas paid in ETH.

Token or coin

A token runs on a chain someone else operates. An ERC-20 contract must expose name, symbol, decimals, totalSupply, balanceOf, transfer, transferFrom, approve and allowance, plus Transfer and Approval events, per ethereum.org's ERC-20 page updated July 9, 2026.

A coin runs on its own blockchain. You need node software, validators or miners, and people willing to run them. Frameworks such as the Cosmos SDK, which calls itself a modular framework for building secure, high performance blockchains, give you a starting codebase (Cosmos docs, checked Oct. 28, 2026).

How to launch a token

  1. Decide what the token does, the total supply, who gets it at launch and any vesting. Write this down before you write code.
  2. Build from an audited library. OpenZeppelin's ERC-20 guide, checked Oct. 28, 2026, shows a token that inherits its ERC20 contract and mints the initial supply to the deployer. It uses 18 decimals by default.
  3. Test on a testnet, then have the contract audited by an independent firm.
  4. Deploy. Ethereum.org, updated Dec. 17, 2025, says deployment sends a transaction with the compiled bytecode and needs far more gas than a simple ETH transfer. It points to Hardhat and Foundry for deployment and lists Remix as a related tool.
  5. Verify the source code on a block explorer so holders can read the contract.
  6. Add liquidity on an exchange so people can trade it.

The legal question in the U.S.

How you sell the token matters as much as the code. The SEC and CFTC joint interpretation of March 17, 2026 sorts crypto assets into digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities. Only digital securities are securities in themselves, per Jenner & Block on March 20, 2026.

A non-security token can still be sold as part of an investment contract when the issuer promises essential managerial efforts from which buyers expect profit, per the same summary. Speak to a securities lawyer before you sell to anyone.

Once your token has a name, check whether ChatGPT and Google AI know what it is and who is behind it.

Run the free Entity CheckBook a call

Sources

  1. ERC-20 Token Standard · ethereum.org, July 9, 2026Supports: What ERC-20 is and the functions and events a token contract must expose.
  2. Deploying smart contracts · ethereum.org, Dec. 17, 2025Supports: Deployment sends compiled bytecode in a transaction, costs gas in ETH, and the tools available.
  3. ERC20 · OpenZeppelin, Oct. 28, 2026Supports: Checked Oct. 28, 2026: building a token by inheriting OpenZeppelin's ERC20 contract, with 18 decimals by default.
  4. Cosmos SDK documentation · Cosmos, Oct. 28, 2026Supports: Checked Oct. 28, 2026: the Cosmos SDK describes itself as a modular framework for building blockchains.
  5. SEC and CFTC Issue Landmark Joint Interpretation on Crypto Asset Classification · Jenner & Block, March 20, 2026Supports: The five category taxonomy and when a non-security token is sold as an investment contract.
  6. Application of the Federal Securities Laws to Certain Types of Crypto Assets · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 17, 2026Supports: The joint interpretation's issue date, March 17, 2026, and release numbers 33-11412 and 34-105020.

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General information, not legal advice.

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