Nobody would ever get anywhere if it was done like this. It's more like, going into partnerships that are well risky but knowing about the risk, knowing that it's likely the project will not pan out and being prepared for it.

So for instance, it makes sense to ask what you will get out of it if the project fails and there is just no money? Sometimes what was built can be reused for another project, or there can be an email list that can be reused and so on.

Instead I see people (like in marketing and such) trying to lock up an ICO project into a multi-year contract (lol).

Just learn to deal with risk man..

This. The domain name matters much less than people think.

OP if you don't have a plan for it you just better go and flip it. You'll end up not doing anything and then the domain will just expire... Been there.

Ok, don't fake your stats.

It would be better to reach out to trading communities and trading blogs - even small ones if you don't have a big budget, that would give you better targeting than just running a banner ad on a big website.

Do interviews, showcase your platform and offer people fee rebate for market making and maybe no-fee trading for the first few weeks or some such incentive.