What a BescPad presale actually does

A BescPad presale is a smart contract that:

• Accepts BESC contributions from anyone, between your start and end times
• Holds those contributions in escrow until the window closes
• On success (soft cap reached): automatically creates the LP pair on BescSwap, locks it, and lists the token. Token becomes tradable in the same block the presale ends.
• On failure (soft cap not reached): refunds 100% of every contribution. No team action required, no support tickets, no "trust us."

That last point is the entire reason on-chain presales matter. Contributors don't have to trust you with their BESC for the duration of the raise — they trust the contract to either succeed and list, or refund.

The four decisions that shape the raise

Open /launch and you'll see a long form. The fields that really matter:

1. Hard cap — the maximum BESC you'll accept. Defines the size of the raise.
2. Soft cap — the minimum BESC needed for the presale to succeed. Below this, everyone gets refunded.
3. Presale rate vs listing rate — how many tokens each 1 BESC buys during the presale vs at the LP listing. Determines the initial market price.
4. LP percentage — what fraction of the raise gets paired into the LP. Determines how deep the initial pool is.

Everything else (max contribution, time window, vesting) is supporting detail. Get these four right and the rest follows.

Hard cap — how to size it

The hard cap is your "yes I can fill this" number. It's not the number you wish you could raise; it's the number you can credibly hit given your existing audience.

Rule of thumb: if you have N people in Telegram who actively engage (not just lurkers), you can credibly raise about N × 0.05 to 0.2 BESC in a typical first presale, depending on how aligned the community is. So a 500-person engaged community might credibly hit 25–100 BESC. Aim at the lower end.

Failure mode #1: setting hard cap based on what you "deserve" rather than what you can realistically deliver. A 1,000 BESC hard cap that fills 20% looks worse to outside observers than a 200 BESC hard cap that fills 100%. Round down.

Failure mode #2: hitting hard cap in five minutes. If the first wave alone fills the raise, you under-priced. Not strictly bad — the launch ships — but it leaves money on the table and frustrates anyone who missed the window.

Soft cap — the floor that makes refunds possible

The soft cap is the minimum raise that allows the LP to actually have meaningful depth at listing. Below the soft cap, the LP would be too thin to support trading, so the contract auto-refunds everyone instead.

Standard practice: soft cap = 40–60% of hard cap.

• Set it too low (e.g. 10% of hard cap) and a sleepy presale "succeeds" with a wafer-thin pool. Listing day looks dead.
• Set it too high (e.g. 90% of hard cap) and any slow stretch in the raise triggers refunds even though most of the money showed up.

50% is the sweet spot for most first launches. Adjust based on how confident you are in your community.

Presale rate vs listing rate — building the floor

This is the lever most teams set wrong, so it's worth being concrete.

Presale rate = how many tokens 1 BESC buys during the presale. Listing rate = how many tokens 1 BESC buys once trading opens (i.e. the initial pool ratio).

The relationship between these two sets the immediate floor for presale buyers. Listing rate should be lower than presale rate so early buyers see an immediate price increase when trading starts.

Example: presale rate 1,000 tokens / BESC, listing rate 700 tokens / BESC. A presale contributor who paid 1 BESC for 1,000 tokens sees those tokens worth 1/700 = 0.00143 BESC each at listing — vs the 0.001 BESC they paid. That's a ~43% paper gain at listing, which is the "floor" that prevents panic sells in the first hour.

Typical ratio: listing rate = 60–80% of presale rate. Higher than 80% (i.e. similar prices) and there's no floor; lower than 50% and you're giving presale buyers an unsustainable head-start that will dump on listing.

LP percentage — how much of the raise goes to liquidity

The "LP percentage" field controls what fraction of the raised BESC gets paired into the LP at listing. The remainder is sent to your treasury wallet (for operations, marketing, etc.).

BescPad's standard presale parameters set the LP percentage between 10% and 100%. Anything inside that range works; anything below the floor is not a standard launch and would need a custom deployment. Typical ranges within the standard envelope:

• 10–40%: contract allows it, but reads as extractive to most buyers. Use only if you have a transparent reason (matched funding from elsewhere, etc.).
• 50–60%: workable for project with significant operational costs. Some skepticism from holders.
• 70–80%: standard for successful launches. Decent treasury, deep enough LP for healthy trading.
• 100%: every raised BESC goes into LP. Strongest trust signal; you have no treasury runway from the raise. Only viable if you're already funded.

Most successful launches sit at 70–80%. The 30–20% remainder funds marketing, partnerships, and initial dev work. Higher LP percentage = deeper pool = less volatile early trading.

The LP that gets created is automatically locked by the presale contract for the duration you specify (typically 1–2 years). You don't need to manually lock it post-listing — the contract handles it atomically with the LP creation. Unsold presale tokens (reserved tokens that didn't all get bought) are auto-locked for a minimum of 30 days — that's the standard floor; you can set longer.

Time window and contribution caps

Three more practical fields:

Start and end time

For a first launch, give yourself 48–72 hours. Long enough for global timezones, short enough to maintain urgency. Anything under 24h favors bots; anything over a week loses momentum. Pick a start time that hits a busy crypto-Twitter window in your primary timezone.

Per-wallet contribution cap

Limits how much one wallet can contribute. Forces broader distribution and prevents one whale from filling 80% of the raise and dumping at listing.

Rule of thumb: maxContribution = hardCap / (expected_contributors / 4). So a 100 BESC hard cap with 50 expected contributors → max contribution ~8 BESC. Tightens distribution without being annoyingly restrictive.

Min contribution

Filters out dust contributions. Usually 0.1–0.5 BESC. Below 0.1 BESC, the gas cost per contributor becomes meaningful relative to the contribution. Above 1 BESC, you start excluding genuinely interested small contributors.

Pre-launch checklist

The presale is a marketing event as much as a smart contract. Things to have in place before you announce the start time:

• Token deployed and verified on the explorer. Contributors will check.
• Renounce ownership prepared (don't actually renounce yet — you may need to adjust fees post-launch). Have the button ready to click.
• Telegram + Twitter live with at least 200–300 real (not bot) members. Empty channels kill conversions.
• Pinned presale FAQ covering: token address, presale link, contribution range, schedule, what happens on success vs failure.
• Marketing partners / KOLs lined up if you're using them. Brief them on the timing.
• Contract verification — the token contract should be verified on the BESC explorer so contributors can read the source. If you deployed via BescPad's factory the template is the standard one used across every BescPad launch.
• Locked LP duration explicit — "LP will be locked for X months on listing" said publicly.
• Test buy ready — one or two trusted community members ready to make a small contribution at start time, so the first transaction in the pool isn't dead air.

Why presales don't fill

In rough order of frequency:

1. Audience too small for the cap. The single most common reason. Recalculate.
2. Wrong launch timing. Crypto markets have rhythm. A presale during a brutal week of red candles fills 30% of what it would in a calmer week.
3. Soft cap set too aggressively — small dip in pace triggers refund, contributors lose confidence.
4. Tokenomics that read as extractive. 50% LP, 50% to "team & marketing" looks like a treasury raise with a token bolted on. 70%+ LP signals alignment.
5. No clear "what's next" plan. Smart contributors ask: "OK, the LP is locked — what does the project actually do for the next 6 months?" A roadmap doesn't have to be detailed but it has to exist.
6. Listing rate too close to presale rate. No paper gain on listing = early panic sellers.
7. Missing tax-token math. If your token has a 10% sell tax and the LP is small, even modest sell pressure crashes the price. Either size LP bigger or set lower taxes.

After the raise closes

Soft cap reached → the contract auto-finalizes within minutes of the end timestamp. It:

1. Creates the LP pair on BescSwap
2. Locks the LP for your specified duration
3. Distributes the purchased tokens to every contributor wallet
4. Sends the non-LP portion of the raise to your treasury wallet

Your token is now tradable. The first hour is the most volatile — expect a green candle followed by some sell pressure as early buyers take partial profits, then settling. Avoid posting price screenshots for the first 24h; it sets unhealthy expectations.

Soft cap not reached → the contract opens refund claims. Contributors call refund() on the contract (most BescPad-deployed presales also surface a one-click button on /presales). 100% refund of every contribution.

FAQ

What's the difference between soft cap and hard cap?

Soft cap is the minimum the presale must raise to "succeed" and launch. Below soft cap, every contributor gets refunded. Hard cap is the maximum that will be accepted; once reached, contributions close.

What happens if the presale doesn't reach soft cap?

The contract opens refund claims. Every contributor gets 100% of their contribution back. No team intervention required.

How long should the presale run?

48–72 hours is the sweet spot for a first launch. Long enough to catch global timezones, short enough to maintain urgency.

What's a good LP percentage?

70–80% for most launches. Higher reads as more committed to holders; lower as more extractive.

Should presale rate equal listing rate?

No. Listing rate should be 60–80% of presale rate so presale contributors see an immediate paper gain at listing. This creates the "floor" that prevents early panic sells.

Can I change the presale parameters after it starts?

No. Once the contract is deployed and the start time passes, every parameter is locked. That's the point — contributors trust the contract, not the team.

Can I run a second presale after the first?

Yes, but the math is different — you'd usually do a "round 2" at the listing price or with different terms. Most projects find one presale is enough; ongoing growth happens via on-DEX trading post-launch.