Artist Coins
Artist Coins gives verified artists the tools they need to easily launch a Solana-powered Coin, create new revenue streams, and reward their biggest fans.
This guide is intended to help explain the key terms and mechanics behind your Artist Coin. To learn more about wallets & USDC on Audius, click here.
Total Supply & Tokenomics
All Artist Coins on Audius have a total supply of 1,000,000,000 Coins.
500,000,000 (50%): Reserved for the artist (creator of the Coin).
250,000,000 (25%): Sold in the bonding curve to reach graduation.
250,000,000 (25%): Entirely for the market to allow liquid trading.
Initial Market Cap: 10,000 $AUDIO (~$612)
Graduation Market Cap: 1,000,000 $AUDIO (~$30,600)
Bonding Curve
Artist Coins launch through a process known as a bonding curve - a common distribution mechanism for crypto coins that ensures a fair launch for everybody, prevents pre-allocation to insiders, and simultaneously raises liquidity to support more trading.
In the beginning stages of an Artist Coin’s launch, the bonding curve uses mathematical formulas to help control the price of the Coin for your earliest fans & buyers. Eventually, the Coin reaches enough momentum to “graduate” from the bonding curve formulas and enter the real open market.
For most fans, the differences between the bonding curve and the open market are imperceptible in daily practice. Anybody can buy from, and sell into, the bonding curve at any time. When fans buy the Coin, the price goes up. And when fans sell the Coin, the price goes down.
Bonding Curve Technical Details
Initial Market Cap - The starting value of your Coin at launch, based on the initial price and supply. These values are the same for all Artist Coins.
Graduation Market Cap - The market cap your Coin will reach when it graduates into the open market. These values are the same for all Artist Coins.
Initial Market Cap: 10,000 $AUDIO (~$612)
Graduation Market Cap: 1,000,000 $AUDIO (~$30,600)
$AUDIO as a Liquidity Pair
To support efficient and sustainable trading, the native $AUDIO token is used as a liquidity pair for Artist Coins behind the scenes. This is why certain bonding curve parameters are defined with both $AUDIO and USD values.
This detail is inconsequential for most fans - Everybody can buy your Coin with any cryptocurrency supported on Audius, like USDC, $AUDIO, and even other Artist Coins.
First Buy
This optional step guarantees you to be the first buyer of your Coin at the absolute lowest possible price. This is done by bundling your first buy into the same crypto-transaction as the Coin’s creation, so even your most eager fans (or bots) won’t beat you to it. You can always buy (and sell) your Coin later, at any time in the future too.
The First Buy requires $AUDIO in your external wallet. If interested, click “Get $AUDIO” to acquire some $AUDIO without losing your Launchpad progress. Future buys can use any cryptocurrency supported on Audius.
Unlocking
The artist (creator) of a Coin owns 50% of the supply upfront (500,000,000 Coins). To keep the market fair, these Coins are unlocked daily over a 5-year period. Artists can claim their unlocked Coins every day, or let them accumulate and claim on their own schedule.
Artist Earnings
When your Artist Coin is bought or sold, a 1% trading fee is collected on every trade. 50% of those fees are delivered to the artist (as $AUDIO), and the remaining 50% is used to fund $AUDIO buybacks for the Audius Community Treasury.