Bonding curves, plain English
A bonding curve is a math formula encoded in the token contract that quotes a buy price and a sell price at any moment. As more tokens are bought, the price goes up. As tokens are sold back, the price goes down. No order book, no human market-maker.
The everyday intuition
Imagine a vending machine that sells a special candy. The first bar costs 1c. After 100 bars are sold, the next one costs 2c. After 1,000 are sold, the next one costs 10c. The machine also buys them back at a slightly lower price than it currently sells for. The price isn't set by anyone - it's a function of how many bars are out in the world. That's a bonding curve, applied to tokens instead of candy.
Why creators use it for token launches
A normal token launch needs liquidity - you have to seed a pool with both your token AND a pile of ETH (often tens of thousands of dollars) before anyone can trade. A bonding curve removes that problem: the smart contract IS the liquidity. Anyone can buy from it, anyone can sell back to it, from block 1. You don't need to be a market maker; the formula handles it.
The formula we use
artsunami uses a constant-product curve (x * y = k) with virtual reserves. The token contract maintains a virtual ETH reserve and a virtual token reserve; their product stays constant on each trade. With a virtual ETH reserve of 1.5 ETH and 800M tokens to sell, the first 1,000 tokens cost a fraction of a cent each; by the time half the curve is gone, each token costs maybe 100x more. Every trade, buy or sell, pays a 1% fee, split half to the protocol and half to the coin's creator.
What can go wrong
Slippage: a single large buy on a thin curve moves the price massively against you - check the quote before signing. MEV: bots can sandwich your tx by buying just before and selling just after; on early-stage launches this is usually small but real. Volatility: the price can crash if early buyers dump - the curve will absorb it, but you'll get back fewer ETH than you put in.
How it works on artsunami
Every coin launched from Create → Coin starts on a bonding curve, on Base. Curve parameters (virtual reserves, fee, graduation threshold) are immutable per coin - set by the ZillaLauncher factory at launch. Browse live coins at /tokens or in the feed; trade one at /token/[chainId]/[address]. The coin page's Expert mode shows the curve as a simplified order book: how much ETH moves the price 1, 2, 5, 10, 25 or 50% up or down - computed from the curve itself, there are no resting orders.
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