Tidepool / field guide

How a coin finds its tide.

What happens when you launch here, what your coin trades against, where fees go and what to check before you buy anything. Short sections, no marketing.

Solana mainnetSettled on pump.funNon-custodial
01 / Launching

How it works

Tidepool is a front end for pump.fun's create_v2 instruction. You fill in the studio, we upload your art and metadata, and build one transaction that your wallet signs and pays for. pump.fun's programs create the coin as a Token-2022 mint with its own bonding curve. Tidepool never holds your funds and can't move your coin.

The launch, step by step

  1. Connect. A Solana mainnet wallet. Connecting only shares your public address.
  2. Describe the coin. Name (up to 32 characters), ticker (up to 10, letters and digits), artwork (PNG, JPG or WebP up to 4 MB), and an optional description and links.
  3. Pick the quote. SOL, USDC, a tokenized stock or a listed token. See Pairs.
  4. Decide on a first buy. Optional. It is part of the same transaction as the creation, so both succeed or both revert.
  5. Sign once. Before your wallet opens, we simulate the whole transaction against mainnet. After you sign, the server checks the message is byte-for-byte what was prepared, adds the new mint's signature, and sends it.
  6. Listed on confirmation. The coin appears in Explore only once the transaction is confirmed on chain.
Lost the tab mid-launch? Come back to the studio in the same browser and press Check launch. We look up the signed transaction and list the coin if it landed.

The bonding curve

Each coin starts on a constant-product curve between virtual reserves of the coin and of its quote asset. Buying adds quote and removes coins, pushing the price up; selling does the reverse. The curve's progress is the share of its sellable coin supply that has been bought. When the curve completes, pump.fun migrates the coin to a PumpSwap pool. Try the model below to see how trade size moves price.

↖ curve.modelillustration — not market data
startaftercoin reserve →↑ quote reserve
Coin reserve90.91
Quote reserve110.00
Price after1.210×
Avg. impact10.00%

Both reserves start at 100 units, price 1. Price is quote ÷ coin reserve. Real curves use pump.fun's integer math, fees and a real-reserve cap, and complete at a threshold set per quote.

02 / Quote assets

Pairs

A pair is a coin and the asset it trades against. In DOG / USDC, buyers pay USDC and sellers receive USDC. The quote sets the unit of the market. It is not collateral and does not back the coin's value.

OptionWhat it isGood to know
SOLNative SolanaThe classic pump.fun pair. Shown as the wrapped-SOL mint So11111111111111111111111111111111111111112.
USDCCircle's dollar stablecoinPrices read in dollars. Mint EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v.
StockTokenized equities and ETFsxStocks, Backpack Securities and similar Token-2022 mints that pump.fun lists. Issuer rules can apply to holding them.
TokenListed crypto tokens, or any pasted mintWe check a pasted mint with pump.fun's own rules before you can use it.

The list in the studio is read live from pump.fun: its global whitelist and its quote-control registry. A pasted mint can also be another pump.fun coin, within pump.fun's depth limit. Passing our check means pump.fun accepts it right now; the transaction is still simulated again before you sign.

Network fees and account deposits are always paid in SOL, even for a USDC or stock pair. A first buy on a token pair spends that token from your wallet, with a 1% cost cap.

03 / Costs

Fees

Tidepool charges nothing. There is no launch fee and no cut of trades. What you pay at launch is Solana network fees, a priority fee and the rent deposits for the new accounts — usually well under 0.01 SOL — plus your first buy if you make one. Your wallet shows the final amount before you approve.

Trades pay pump.fun's fee schedule, which is set by pump.fun and tiered by market cap. Part of every trade fee goes to the coin's creator (or to holders, if holder rewards are on). Creators can claim their share on pump.fun.

04 / Rewards

Holder rewards

pump.fun has a holder-rewards mode. When a creator turns it on at launch, the coin's creator is set to a holder-rewards account for that mint, so creator fees accrue there instead of to a wallet, and pump.fun pays them out to holders through its distribute_fee_to_holders instruction.

  • It is chosen at launch and recorded on chain. Check a coin's page before assuming it pays holders.
  • Payout timing and eligibility are set by pump.fun, not by Tidepool.
  • With the switch off, holding a coin earns nothing by itself; creator fees go to the creator.
05 / Identity

Tickers

Names, tickers and images are not unique on Solana. Anyone can launch another coin called the same thing. The only identifier that can't be copied is the mint address. Every coin page shows it in full; compare it with the one you were given before buying.

Artwork and metadata are pinned to IPFS through pump.fun's uploader, with a fallback copy if that service is down. The metadata link is written into the coin when it is created.

06 / Read this

Risks

  • Most coins go to zero. Only buy what you can lose entirely.
  • Price impact and slippage. Big trades against small reserves move the price a lot. What you get can differ from what you were quoted.
  • Quote risk. A coin paired with a stock or token inherits that asset's moves and its issuer's rules, on top of its own.
  • Data delays. Market caps and volumes come from third-party indexers and can lag or be missing. Graduation does not mean liquidity is locked.
  • Wallet safety. Read every request before signing. Tidepool will never ask for a seed phrase.
07 / Verify

Contracts

Tidepool has no on-chain program of its own. Launches and trades run on pump.fun's programs:

ProgramAddress
pump.fun bonding curve6EF8rrecthR5Dkzon8Nwu78hRvfCKubJ14M5uBEwF6P
PumpSwap AMMpAMMBay6oceH9fJKBRHGP5D4bD4sWpmSwMn52FMfXEA
pump.fun feespfeeUxB6jkeY1Hxd7CsFCAjcbHA9rWtchMGdZ6VojVZ
Token-2022TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb

More on how pump.fun works in pump.fun's public docs ↗.