The curve¶
Every strategy starts life on its own bonding curve. It trades there until 4.2 ETH of demand has shown up, then graduates into its Uniswap pool, and only then does the machine start sweeping.
All 1,000,000,000 tokens go onto the strategy's own curve, at a valuation of 1.68 ETH.
Every buy raises the price. Every trade pays 1% to Sweep and 2% royalty.
At 4.2 ETH the curve closes, the pool opens at the same price, and the leftover tokens burn.
From the pool's first trade, 10% of every trade feeds the treasury, and the sweeping begins.
Why a curve first¶
Most launches never find real demand. A strategy that opened a pool and a desk on day one would still be a pool and a desk a year later, bidding on nothing with an empty treasury, on a board full of others like it.
The curve is the filter. A launch has to attract 4.2 ETH of buying before it gets a pool, a treasury and a bid. Most never do, and that is the curve working: what reaches the pool is a token people actually wanted.
How the price moves¶
The curve prices the token the way a Uniswap pool does, against a reserve of ETH it pretends to hold from the start. That pretend reserve is 1.68 ETH, which sets the opening price. Real ETH from buyers adds to it; sells take real ETH back out.
| Opening valuation | 1.68 ETH, about $4,600 |
| Opening price | 0.00000000168 ETH per token |
| Tokens sold on the curve | about 714,300,000 (71.4%) |
| ETH the curve needs | 4.2 ETH, after fees |
| Price when the curve closes | 12.25 times the opening price |
| Valuation at graduation | 20.58 ETH, about $56,000 |
Dollar figures assume an ETH price of about $2,700. The ETH figures are fixed in the contract and are the same for every launch.
A buy moves the price up, a sell moves it down, and the app quotes what a trade delivers before you sign, with a minimum you will accept.
What a trade on the curve costs¶
3% on every buy and every sell, taken from the ETH side of the trade:
- 1% to Sweep
- 2% royalty, to the same wallet that receives the strategy's royalty in the pool
None of it goes to a treasury. A strategy on its curve has no treasury yet.
The snipe tax¶
For the first five seconds after a launch, buys pay an extra tax that falls to zero:
| Seconds after launch | Extra tax on a buy |
|---|---|
| 0 | up to 96%: the buyer keeps about 1% of what they spend |
| 1 | 24.75% |
| 2 | 3.09% |
| 3 | 0.38% |
| 4 | 0.04% |
| 5 and later | nothing |
It exists to make a bot's buy in the first seconds of a launch a losing trade, and it is worth being plain about what it does not do: a buyer who waits five seconds pays the ordinary 3%. At a block every tenth of a second, the window is about fifty blocks.
The snipe tax goes to Sweep. Two wallets are exempt: the one that launched the strategy and the one that receives its royalty. On most strategies they are the same wallet; on a token strategy the royalty goes to the token's owner, and both are exempt. Nobody else can be added. Sells never pay it.
Graduation¶
The buy that brings the curve to 4.2 ETH graduates it. If that buy is bigger than what is left, it gets exactly what is left and the rest of its ETH comes back in the same transaction, so nobody can block a graduation by leaving a sliver unsold.
Then, in one transaction that anyone may send — Sweep's keeper sends it, and so can you:
- The curve hands every wei and every unsold token to the launch contract.
- The Uniswap v4 pool opens at exactly the price the curve closed at, with all of the curve's ETH, about 4.2, and about 204,100,000 tokens (20.4% of supply).
- That liquidity goes to the dead address. Nobody can withdraw it, ever.
- The tokens left over, about 81,600,000 (8.16% of supply), go to the dead address too.
Between the graduating buy and that transaction, the token cannot trade at all: the curve is closed both ways and the pool is not open yet. Anyone can end that pause at any time by opening the pool.
If opening the pool fails for any reason, the whole transaction is undone and everything is back on the curve, closed but whole, for anyone to try again.
Where every token goes¶
| Tokens | Share of supply | |
|---|---|---|
| Bought on the curve, held by buyers | about 714,300,000 | 71.4% |
| Placed in the pool at graduation | about 204,100,000 | 20.4% |
| Burnt at graduation | about 81,600,000 | 8.16% |
Nothing is reserved for Sweep, for the launcher or for a team. The same split holds for every strategy that graduates.
What nobody can do¶
- Take the curve's ETH. The curve has no owner and no settings. Its ETH leaves only into the pool, at graduation. Sweep has no way to reach it, at any moment.
- Change the numbers. The opening price, the 4.2 ETH line and the fees are written into the contract, the same for every launch.
- Trade the token anywhere else. A strategy token is locked while on its curve too. It moves between the curve and your wallet, and not from one wallet to another, so nobody can open a side market with no fees. See The token.
A launch that never graduates¶
It stays on its curve, for good. It never expires and is never closed by anyone. It can be bought and sold there for as long as anyone wants to, at 3% a trade.
It never gets a pool, a treasury or a bid, and it never sweeps a single piece. That is most launches. The app shows which phase every strategy is in, so you always know whether a strategy's machine is running yet.
After graduation¶
The pool takes over, and everything on The pool and How it works applies: a 10% fee on every trade, 8 points of it to the treasury, a bid that starts climbing from zero the moment the pool opens, and every sale from the shelf burning the token.
The token is fed by what the strategy buys, never backed by it. Graduating does not change that: there is still no redemption and no claim on anything the strategy holds.