When a coin launches it sits on a bonding curve — an automatic pricing machine. There is no order book and no human market maker. A formula decides the price.
How the price moves
- arrow_rightEvery buy pushes the price up. Every sell pushes it down.
- arrow_rightEarly buyers get the cheapest price. The earlier you are, the more coins you get per SOL.
- arrow_rightAll the SOL people spend goes into the curve — the pool everyone buys from and sells back to.
- arrow_rightWhen enough is bought (the curve fills, called "bonding" or "graduating") the coin moves to a real DEX like Raydium and the curve is done.
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Why this matters for scams: because early buyers get coins so cheap, a scammer who secretly buys first can dump on everyone who buys after them. The entire rug-pull playbook is built on getting in before you do.