Launchpad guide
How a bonding curve memecoin launchpad works.
A bonding curve lets a new memecoin trade from its first block without anyone seeding a liquidity pool. Here is how pricing, fees and graduation work, using Floor1 on Giwa as the example.
By Floor1 · Reviewed
What a bonding curve is
A bonding curve is a pricing formula built into a smart contract. The contract holds the token’s supply and an ETH reserve, and prices every trade from those reserves.
Floor1 uses a constant-product formula, the same idea as many decentralised exchanges. Buying takes tokens out and adds ETH, so the price rises; selling does the opposite, so the price falls. The price follows demand from the first trade, with no order book and no market maker.
Virtual reserves
A brand-new token has no ETH in its reserve, so the curve prices trades against virtual reserves added to the real ones. Virtual reserves are never paid out; they only set the starting price and how steeply it moves. Floor1 will publish its final launch parameters before public launch.
Where trading fees go
- Every curve trade pays a 1% fee, split equally between the Floor1 protocol and the token’s creator.
- Each token can also have a creator tax between 0% and 10%, which goes entirely to the creator.
- Fees are taken before the reserves move, so they never count toward graduation.
- Because the creator tax is set per token, check it before you trade.
What graduation means
A curve moves through three states: active, ready and graduated. While it is active, anyone can buy and sell on the curve. When it reaches its graduation threshold, curve trading stops and it becomes ready. Graduation then moves its reserves into a liquidity pool, where the token keeps trading.
Why a buy can be partly refunded
A buy that would take a curve past its threshold is filled only up to the threshold. Fees are charged on the filled part, and the rest of your ETH is refunded in the same transaction, so you do not pay for tokens the curve cannot sell.
What a bonding curve does not do
A bonding curve sets prices mechanically. It does not make a token valuable or protect anyone from losses, and prices can fall as quickly as they rise.
Floor1 today
- Floor1 runs on Giwa Sepolia, the test network, where ETH has no monetary value.
- Moving a graduated curve’s reserves into a liquidity pool is not enabled on Floor1 yet.
- The Floor1 app is still private. Fees and final launch parameters will be published before public launch.