Bonding curve
A mathematical price curve that automatically adjusts a token's price as supply is bought and sold from a smart contract.
A bonding curve is a smart-contract pricing mechanism where the cost of the next token depends on how many tokens have already been purchased. On Solana, Pump.fun and Bonk Classic both use bonding curves: SOL flows into the contract to buy tokens, and the contract's formula raises the price for each new buy. When the curve fills (the SOL target is reached), the token "graduates" — typically to a Raydium liquidity pool — and trades on a standard AMM from then on. Bonding curves enable instant trading with no LP seeding, but most curve tokens never graduate.
Related
- Dev buyThe deployer's initial purchase of their own token in the same transaction (or bundle) as the token creation.
- GraduationThe moment a bonding-curve token fills its curve and migrates to a standard AMM pool (e.g. Raydium).
- Pump.funThe dominant Solana fair-launch platform using a bonding curve. Tokens graduate to Raydium once the curve fills.
- Bonk Classic (Letsbonk.fun)A Solana bonding-curve launch venue similar to Pump.fun, run by the BONK community.