Launching a coin

Creating a coin

A launch takes three things: a name, an image and a first buy of about $10 in ETH. The coin launches on Robinhood Chain with its own market contract, which holds its Hardfloor curve and its floor reserve.

Every launch has a supply of 1,000,000,000 coins, and all of them start in the market. There is no creator allocation, so every coin in a wallet got there through a buy. Names can be up to 32 characters, and tickers up to 10 letters and digits.

The first buy

Creators buy like everyone else, and the first buy is part of the launch transaction. It costs at least about $10 in ETH and can take up to 5% of the supply. Nobody else can trade before it, so it pays the 1.25% trading fee but no anti-snipe fee. The first coins sell at the floor price, so nearly all of the first buy goes into the floor reserve.

The floor at launch

A coin's floor price is set the moment it launches: half of the raise target spread over the 800,000,000 coins that sell by bonding. On a $50k raise target that is $0.00003125.

The first 53% of the supply sells at exactly that price, so those coins are fully backed: selling them returns about what was paid, less the trading fees. After that the price climbs along the curve, and every buy still puts the floor price of its coins into the reserve. Fees go into the reserve from the first trade onward and raise the floor for the coins in circulation.

The anti-snipe fee

Snipers are bots that buy in the first seconds of a launch and sell into the buyers who follow. The anti-snipe fee makes that expensive.

The fee sits on top of the 1.25% trading fee, on buys and sells: 30% of the trade in the first minute after launch, 20% in the second and 10% in the third. After 3 minutes only the 1.25% is left. All of it goes to the Floor Wars pot, which pays only into the floors of winning coins, so a sniper cannot win it back through this coin's floor. A sniper can still buy first, but pays the most to do it.

Bonding

A coin bonds once 80% of its supply has sold, which is about 4.2 ETH raised at the current settings. By then, before fees, half of everything buyers paid is in the floor reserve and half sits above the floor. The buy that gets there also moves the coin to Uniswap, in the same transaction:

• The curve closes for good.
• A Uniswap v4 pool of ETH and the coin opens at the curve's last price, so the price does not jump.
• The money above the floor opens the pool. Part of it goes into the reserve first, so the coins in the pool are backed at the floor too.
• The pool's liquidity belongs to the Hardfloor hook, which has no way to take it out. It is locked for good.
• The unsold coins that do not go into the pool are burned. About 888,000,000 coins exist afterwards, and that number only falls.
• The reserve stays in the coin's market contract, which becomes its floor vault. Anyone can sell coins to it at the floor price, less the 1.25% fee.

Example: on a $50k raise target, about $27,750 sits in the reserve behind 888,000,000 coins, and the floor is about 12.5% of the price. From there, the 0.50% of every Uniswap swap pushes the floor up as the coin trades (see Trading and fees).

If the pool cannot open inside that buy, the coin page says it is moving to Uniswap, and anyone can open the pool with one transaction at the same price. Selling to the floor reserve works in the meantime. A pool that still has not opened after 7 days can be given up on: its ETH goes into the floor reserve, its coins are burned, and the coin can then only be sold to the reserve.

What the creator gets

The creator gets

• 0.30% of every trade on the coin: $0.30 for every $100 traded. Anyone can send it to the creator at any time, and the creator can move it to a new address.
• The same floor under their coins as every other holder.

The creator does not get

• Free coins. There is no creator allocation.
• Access to the floor reserve. It pays out only by the rules in The floor.
• A way to change the rules after launch. The core contracts are non-upgradeable.
• A softer exit. A creator who dumps sells into the same curve or pool, and to the same floor reserve, as any other seller.
• The pool's liquidity. After bonding it belongs to the hook, and nobody can remove it.