What Is a Bonding Curve? Token Pricing Explained Simply

A bonding curve is a formula that sets a token's price automatically based on how many tokens have been bought. There is no order book and no market maker: you trade directly with the curve, and every buy nudges the price up while every sell nudges it down.

Why launchpads use bonding curves

• Instant trading: a token is tradable the moment it's created, with no need to raise liquidity first.
• Fair launch: everyone buys from the same curve at the same rules. There is no presale and no hidden team allocation.
• Predictable pricing: you can see exactly how much you'll receive before you confirm.

How the price moves

OmniLaunch uses a constant-product curve, the same idea used by many decentralized exchanges. The curve holds a reserve of SOL and a reserve of tokens. Their product stays constant, so when you add SOL and take tokens out, each next token costs a little more.

Small buys early on move the price only a little. As more SOL flows in, the price climbs faster. Sells do the reverse.

What is graduation?

Each OmniLaunch token has 1 billion tokens: 793.1 million are sold on the curve and 206.9 million are kept aside. When the curve's tokens sell out (about 85 SOL raised), the token graduates.

At graduation, the raised SOL and the reserved tokens are used to create a liquidity pool on Raydium, and the pool's LP tokens are burned. Burning them means nobody can ever pull that liquidity out, which protects holders from the classic 'rug pull'.

Fees

Every buy and sell on the curve pays a 1% platform fee. The amount you'll receive after fees is always shown before you confirm.

Risks to understand

• Prices can fall as fast as they rise when holders sell.
• Most new tokens never graduate.
• A bonding curve makes trading fair, not safe: only trade what you can afford to lose.