Cryptocurrency development means creating a digital currency, either on an existing network or with its own chain, defining issuance, supply and transfer rules. In the European Union, offering cryptoassets to the public is governed by MiCA. Unknown Gravity handles the technical build and the documentation.
“Building a cryptocurrency” describes two very different projects that share a name.
Issuing a token on an existing chain and running a chain of your own sound alike in a pitch deck. They have nothing in common in budget, timeline or maintenance. That is where we start.
01 / Your own coin, or a token on an existing chain
Most projects that ask us for “a cryptocurrency” actually need a token: a contract deployed on a network that already works, such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, BASE or BNB Chain. You inherit its security, its validators, its wallets and its liquidity. The work concentrates on the contract, the economic model and the distribution.
A coin of your own is a different animal: a new chain or a fork, with its own validator set, consensus and economic security. Nothing is inherited. The network is worth exactly what the set of nodes behind it is worth, and you are the one who has to recruit, incentivize and keep that set alive. That is protocol engineering, not a contract deployment.
The useful question is not which route is better. It is what your asset needs to do that an existing chain will not allow: custom validation rules, data isolation, or control over who is allowed to transact.
02 / What each route costs, and what it costs to keep running
The cost of a token is dominated by three lines: contract development, the security audit, and the market work that follows (listings, liquidity, communication). The code is usually the small part. Once deployed, maintenance is bounded: contract monitoring, key and role management, and upgrades where the design allows them.
A chain of your own adds a permanent cost structure: node and RPC infrastructure, validator incentives, round-the-clock monitoring, coordinated network upgrades, your own explorer and wallet support, and incident response staffed by people who understand the consensus client. It is not a project with a delivery date, it is a service in production: budget it as a recurring line, not as an upfront investment.
03 / When a chain of your own is the wrong answer
We rule out a dedicated chain in these cases, which cover most projects:
- The goal is to represent an asset, reward users or fund development: a standard token does it better and sooner.
- There is no budget to sustain validators for years, and no credible plan to decentralize them.
- Liquidity and wallet or exchange compatibility are needed from day one.
- The real driver is positioning (“our own chain sounds stronger”) rather than a technical requirement.
It earns its keep when privacy, access control or throughput requirements cannot be met on a public network. Even then, a permissioned network is often enough: cheaper to operate and easier to govern.
04 / MiCA and the framework that applies to your asset
European rules classify an asset by what it does, not by what you call it. MiCA covers crypto-assets that are not regulated financial products: asset-referenced tokens (ART), e-money tokens (EMT) and all the others, a category that includes utility tokens and any other token without financial rights. Each group has its own white paper, authorization and reserve obligations.
If the asset carries the rights of a transferable security (profit sharing, debt, voting), MiCA does not apply and securities law does: in Spain, the LMVSI and MiFID II, with the ERIR (the entity responsible for registering and recording securities represented by distributed ledger technology, Arts. 7 and 8 of Law 6/2023) as the registry figure for representing securities through distributed ledger technology. That reshapes the whole project: an issuance document and a prospectus instead of a white paper, unless the offer falls under an exemption; custody requirements; and the appointment of an entity responsible for the recording and registration. That entity can be the issuer itself, where it is authorized to provide custody and administration of securities, or one or more entities it appoints (Arts. 7 and 8 LMVSI, BOE-A-2023-7053).
The call is made before the technical design. Our MiCA/MiFID classifier gives you a first read; it does not replace your legal advisors, but it stops you from building on the wrong assumption.
05 / How we work, and what you get
We open with a framing session: route, target network, economic model. From there the work is the same as in any serious project: functional specification, token development or network client work, testing, testnet deployment, external audit and production release.
Deliverables: a repository with the contracts verified on the explorer, an audit report with the fixes applied, a token economics document with its assumptions and scenarios, a key and role management procedure, and the operations runbook. The code is yours from day one.
We are a Málaga-based team with more than 75 projects delivered and more than 30 clients. As of July 2026, none of the contracts we have deployed has suffered a known security incident. The mistakes we see most often: distributing before auditing, leaving the admin role on a single key, and publishing an economic model that does not survive the first year of issuance.
When the token has to hold a stable value
When the aim is not a new token but collecting without exchange-rate exposure, the fit is stablecoin payment integration.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to start developing my cryptocurrency?
A description of what the asset has to enable, and for whom. That is enough to settle the technical route, the target network and the regulatory framework. If the economic model is still open, token economics is the first piece.
Which blockchains do you work on?
Ethereum and the rest of the EVM networks (Polygon, Arbitrum, BASE, BNB Chain) for standard tokens, and permissioned networks when the case calls for access control. A chain of your own is scoped separately, as a protocol project.
What maintenance does a cryptocurrency need after launch?
A token needs contract monitoring, key custody and occasional upgrades where the design allows them. A chain of your own needs continuous operation: nodes, validators, client releases and an on-call rota for incidents. We cover both formats.