All terms
A formula that sets a token price directly from how much has been bought.
A bonding curve replaces a liquidity pool with a formula. The contract mints tokens on demand and the price is a function of supply sold so far, so each buy pushes the price up along the curve and each sell moves it back down. There is no counterparty and no order book.
Launchpads use this because it means a token can trade from the first second with no liquidity provided by anybody. It also means the earliest buyers necessarily pay the least, which is why who bought first, and how much, is the first thing to check.
When enough has been bought the curve is usually closed and the collected funds are moved into a normal liquidity pool, at which point the token trades like any other.
A pump.fun launch where the price rises smoothly with every purchase until the curve fills and the token migrates to a real pool.
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More defi terms
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