01Checklist
Preparing for the handover
Everything a team can settle while the token is still on a curve, arranged as a phase checklist, because the window after migration is the worst possible time to be deciding anything.
Open the noteBefore the handover
While a token trades on a curve it is in a state that is unusually easy to reason about. Price is a function of how much supply has been sold. There is no order book, no liquidity provider, no depth to check and nothing to route around. One program account holds everything that matters.
That simplicity ends at migration, and the window immediately afterwards is the worst possible moment to be making decisions. This phase covers what can be settled while the curve is still running, and how to watch it approach its completion condition using data anyone can read.
Scope The curve phase: its pricing rule, what is observable, and what a team can prepare in advance
Sourcing Launchpad documentation and curve account state read directly from the chain
Out of scope Advice on whether to launch, what to launch, or what any token is worth
What is true while the curve runs
Five properties of the curve phase that stop being true the instant migration completes. Each one is worth understanding before it disappears, because most surprises after graduation are really surprises about which of these properties ended.
- Property one
Price is a function, not a negotiation
Every quote comes from evaluating the curve at the current position. There is no counterparty deciding whether to fill you, and no depth to exhaust, because the function is defined across its whole domain.
- Property two
There is no liquidity to add or remove
Nobody can provide liquidity to a curve and nobody can withdraw it. The reserve accumulates from purchases and is held by the program. This is why the phrase rug pull means something different before graduation than after it.
- Property three
Slippage has a closed form
Because the pricing rule is deterministic, the cost of a given order size can be computed exactly rather than estimated from depth. Traders who internalised curve slippage are the ones most surprised by pool slippage afterwards.
- Property four
One account holds the whole state
The curve account records the position, the reserve and whether the curve is complete. Watching the phase means watching one account, which is far simpler than anything available after migration.
- Property five
The destination is already decided
Where a graduating token lands is set by the launchpad, not chosen at the moment of migration. It has changed historically and should be confirmed against the launchpad rather than assumed from an older article.
2 desk notes in this phase
The state a token is in while it still trades on a bonding curve, what can be prepared while that state lasts, and how to watch a curve approach its completion condition without guessing.
02Procedure
Watching a graduation live
A procedure for observing a curve complete in real time using public data only: what to open, what to record, and which of the things people watch tell you nothing at all.
Open the noteWhat comes next
The handover covers the event these properties end at. After covers the state that replaces them, where price becomes a ratio, depth becomes finite and routing becomes something you have to check.
The handover
The migration event itself. What the launchpad program does when a curve completes, what it hands to the destination venue, and the ways the sequence can stall or land somewhere nobody was watching.
Open this phaseAfter
The state a token is in once a pool exists. New account, new pricing rule, new fee path, new routing dependencies, and a chart that has to be stitched across two different mechanisms.
Open this phase