Initial buy
The initial buy, also called the opening buy, lets you buy your own token in the same transaction that creates it. Nobody can trade before it, and it is not held to the curve's buy limits. It is optional.
How to set it
In the Create a token form, enter an amount in Initial buy in ETH (optional). The field is named after your paired asset, so a launch priced in GAMA shows Initial buy in GAMA (optional). Below the field the form shows You get exactly the number of tokens the amount buys, and the Token preview adds it to Total ETH before gas.
- Initial buy: how much of the paired asset to spend.
- You get exactly: the tokens that amount buys at launch.
- Buy limits: the curve's limits for everyone else, and the note that your initial buy is not limited.
What happens
The initial buy runs inside the launch transaction, straight after the token and its curve are created. So:
- Nobody can buy first. There is no moment between the launch and your purchase in which someone else can trade.
- The price is known. You buy at the curve's starting price, so the form can tell you exactly how many tokens you get, and there is no slippage setting to choose.
- The tokens go to your connected wallet, not to the payout wallet if you set a different one.
For example, GAMA was opened with an initial buy of 78,000,000 tokens, 7.8% of the supply, for about 0.2394 test ETH including the 1% trading fee: GAMA's launch transaction. On any fresh ETH launch the first 20,000,000 tokens (2% of the supply) cost about 0.058 test ETH.
Fees
The initial buy is an ordinary curve purchase and pays the launch's normal fees:
- Standard launch: the 1% trading fee and your creator tax. 70% of the trading fee and the whole creator tax come back to you as creator earnings.
- Reward launch: the 1% trading fee and the holder fee. Nobody holds the token at the start of the block it is created in, so the holder fee on your initial buy goes to GAMA. Your tokens start earning holder rewards from the next block. See Holder rewards.
You never pay the anti-snipe tax, because the creator is exempt from it.
No buy limit
While a token is on its curve, each purchase and each wallet can take at most 2% of the supply. The initial buy is exempt from both limits, whatever its size; the form says "Your opening buy is not limited." Your later purchases are limited like anyone else's, and the tokens from your initial buy count towards your wallet's limit. If your initial buy leaves you holding more than 2%, that wallet cannot buy more on the curve until its balance is back under the limit. See Buy limits.
Buying the whole curve
If your initial buy is large enough to buy all 780,000,000 tokens on sale, the form warns: "This buy sells out the curve and graduates the token. You get back anything it doesn't need." The token then graduates in the same transaction: its pool opens with locked liquidity before anyone else has traded, and any amount the curve did not need is refunded.
Paired assets other than ETH
When your paired asset is a token, such as GAMA, your wallet asks for two confirmations:
- An approval that lets GAMA's launch contract spend exactly your initial buy amount of that token. See Token approvals.
- The launch itself, which pays the 0.00078 ETH creation fee in ETH and the initial buy in the token.
TIP
The initial buy is the only purchase on your curve that nobody can trade ahead of. Any later buy you make competes with other traders and is limited to 2% of the supply while the token is on its curve.