Trading on the curve
Until it graduates, a GAMA token is bought from and sold to its own bonding curve: a contract that holds the token's supply and quotes a price for every trade. There is no order book and no one on the other side: you always trade with the curve, at the price it quotes. This page explains how that price moves, what each trade costs and what limits apply.
What the curve holds
| Total supply | 1,000,000,000 tokens, all held by the curve at launch |
| For sale on the curve | 780,000,000 tokens (78%) |
| Kept for the pool | 220,000,000 tokens (22%), never sold on the curve |
| Graduation target | what the curve raises when it sells out: 7.8 ETH for an ETH-paired token |
You always pay, or receive, the token's paired asset: ETH for most tokens, or GAMA or another graduated token for some. The target for a token paired with something other than ETH is set at launch and shown on its page as Graduation target.
How the price moves
The price starts low and rises with every buy. Every sale lowers it again. Two things are fixed by design:
- Selling all 780,000,000 tokens raises exactly the graduation target.
- The curve's last price equals the price the token's pool opens at after graduation, so the price does not jump.
For an ETH-paired token, the first tokens cost about 0.0000000028 ETH each and the last about 0.000000035 ETH, about 12.6 times more.
Because the price moves with each trade, a large buy pays a higher average price than a small one. The trade panel's Price impact, including fees tells you how much worse your average price is than the current price, fees included. See Slippage and price impact.
Rounding in the curve always works against the trader, by at most the smallest possible unit per trade. That dust stays in the curve.
What a trade costs
Each launch's fees are fixed when it is created and never change for it. The token page's Token information tab and the trade panel's Fee breakdown show them.
- Standard tokens: a 1% Trading fee (70% to the creator, 30% to GAMA), plus any Creator tax of up to 9%, paid to the creator.
- Reward-mode tokens: a 1% Trading fee to GAMA, plus a Holder rewards fee of 1% to 4%, shared by the token's holders in the paired asset.
On a buy, the fees come out of what you pay and the rest buys tokens. On a sale, the fees come out of what you receive. The quote already includes them. Network gas is extra.
The anti-snipe tax
GAMA can switch on an extra fee for the first few blocks after a launch, starting at a 99% total fee and falling quickly to the normal fee, on curve buys only. It is off by default and is fixed per launch when the launch is created. When it is on, the launch form's preview shows Anti-snipe tax. See Anti-snipe tax.
Buy limits
While a token is on its curve, two limits apply to buys, by default:
- Per buy: one buy can take at most 2% of the supply (20,000,000 tokens).
- Per wallet: a buy cannot leave the wallet that receives the tokens holding more than 2% of the supply.
A buy over either limit fails, so the trade panel stops you before you send it. When you type an amount, it tells you "You can buy up to … more"; Max and You receive stay within your room on their own. Once your wallet is at the limit, you see "Your wallet has reached this token's buy limit. You can still sell, and the limit ends when the token graduates."
Sales, transfers and trades in the pool after graduation are never limited. The creator's opening buy at launch is not limited either. The token page's Token information tab shows each token's limits. See Buy limits.
The last buy and graduation
If a buy is larger than what is left on the curve, you buy only what is left and the rest of your payment comes back to you in the same transaction. The form shows it as Refunded to you. That buy completes the sale, and the token graduates: everything the curve raised and the 220,000,000 tokens it kept go into the token's pool on GAMA DEX, locked permanently.
From then on, the curve is closed and the token trades only in its pool. The trade panel switches to the pool by itself, and the buy limits end. If graduation does not finish in the same transaction, the token page shows Finish graduation or Complete graduation: anyone can press it, and it costs only gas. See After the launch.
TIP
A buy that graduates a token needs more gas than an ordinary buy. Near the end of a sale, GAMA adds it to the estimate for you. If you trade from another app, give a final buy a generous gas limit.
Trading from the DEX
You can also trade a token on its curve from DEX › Swap, for example paying GAMA for a token priced in ETH. The swap goes through the curve in the same transaction, with the same fees and limits. See Swapping.