For liquidity providers
The vault
Where the USDC comes from, what it buys, and how its result reaches LPs.
The vault is a single pool of USDC owned by its liquidity providers. It pays creators up front for shares of their fee streams, and those shares pay it back as fees arrive. LPs hold vault shares, and a share is worth exactly the vault's cash divided by the number of shares.
Where the money goes
- Out, when a stream is bought. The price leaves the vault's cash and goes to the creator in the purchase transaction.
- In, as fees arrive. The vault's share of every USDC fee moves into its cash in the same transaction as the fee. The vault's share of SOL fees is sold for USDC, then added. See Fees paid in SOL.
- Nowhere else. There is no instruction that pays the vault's cash to anyone but a creator at sale or an LP at withdrawal. No fee is taken from the vault.
A stream returns at most twice what the vault paid for it, and as little as nothing.
A round at a time
Deposits and withdrawals open only when no stream is open. While any stream is running, the vault is closed both ways.
This is what makes cash per share a fair price. While streams are open, nobody knows yet what they'll return, so any price for a share would be a guess. Once every stream has settled, the vault holds nothing but cash, and cash per share is exact. Everyone in the vault during a round shares the same streams and the same result; nobody can enter just before a loss lands or leave just after a gain.
Terms run thirty days at most, and anyone can settle a stream once its term or cap ends. The vault page shows whether the vault is open and, when it isn't, which streams are keeping it shut and which of them are ready to settle.
Limits on what the vault buys
Every purchase must fit these limits, and a quote is lowered until it does:
| Limit | Rule |
|---|---|
| One purchase | At most 10% of the vault's free cash |
| One creator | At most 10% of the vault's cash plus what it has paid for open streams, across all of that creator's streams |
| Reserve | The vault's free cash must stay above 30% of its cash plus open purchases |
| Live quotes | Room is kept so every live quote can still be accepted |
The program enforces its own floor on top: no single purchase above 10% of the vault's cash, and at least 20% of cash plus open purchases left in the vault afterwards, whatever the quote key signs. See Pricing.
What an LP carries
- No recourse. If a creator stops paying fees in, or a token stops trading, that stream ends short and the vault keeps what arrived.
- Waiting. Your USDC can't leave while any stream is open.
- SOL sales. The vault's SOL has to be sold before its stream can settle, which needs a buyer.
Each is covered in Risks.