Mechanics, end to end.
Everything below is how Arclight actually runs today on Arc testnet: the curve, the fees, the dev rules, graduation, and the harbor. No promises, just plumbing.
From a form to a live market.
One call on the launchpad contract mints a fixed 1,000,000,000 supply and opens a bonding curve priced in USDC. 800,000,000 sell on the curve; 200,000,000 are reserved to seed the DEX pool at graduation. Nothing else exists: no pre-mint, no hidden allocations.
The four states of every beacon. Graduation is a contract state, not a manual step.
Price is a curve of light.
The pool is a constant-product market with a virtual reserve of 3,000 USDC that sets the opening price. Every buy pushes the price up the arc; every sell walks it back down. There is no order book and no market maker, only the formula.
- Buy: USDC in → tokens out, price rises.
- Sell: tokens in → USDC out, price falls.
- Quotes are read straight from the contract before you sign.
- Every trade is a point of light: blue for buys, red for sells, sized by amount.
The live chart used on every token page: the lit part is bought, the dashed beam is the path to graduation.
One percent, split down the middle.
Every curve trade carries a 1% fee: half to the protocol, half to the token’s creator. The creator half is programmable at launch — burn it, feed a build fund, send it to a charity address, or any custom address. A launch here is a business, not an exit.
Creator routing is set in the launch form and recorded with the token.
After graduation: Arclight takes no further tax. DEX swap fees stay inside the locked pool, which deepens liquidity for every holder.
Devs buy in the open, capped and labelled.
There is no presale. A dev who wants skin in the game buys at launch on the same curve, at the same price as everyone, up to 4% of supply. Buying 1% is free of any condition. Above that, half of the purchase is used to buy back and burn $LIGHT, and the whole thing is written on the token for anyone to see.
The burn half routes value back to the platform token instead of the dev’s pocket.
Full light, then a market that cannot be pulled.
When the curve has raised 6,000 USDC, it closes and the contract seeds a constant-product DEX pool with the raised USDC and the reserved 20% of supply. The pool has no withdraw function: the LP is burned the moment it exists. A rug is not forbidden here, it is impossible.
The failure mode of older launchpads (funds frozen at graduation) is designed out: this transition is one atomic contract state.
The guarantees, as a checklist.
| Guarantee | How it’s enforced | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| No presale | The contract has no discounted mint path. A dev buy pays curve price, capped at 4%. | Launch tx on Arcscan |
| Fixed supply | 1B minted once at creation; mint authority renounced. | Token contract |
| Liquidity locked | Curve funds live in the pool contract; at graduation the LP is burned. | Pool contract |
| No frozen funds | Graduation seeds the DEX in the same transaction that closes the curve. | Graduation tx |
| Honest data | The site renders only what the chain returns. Unknown numbers show as “—”, never invented. | Any token page |
A social layer where rank is earned on-chain.
Every wallet gets a rank from its real portfolio value (USDC plus Arclight tokens, priced from the curves). Rank decides how loud you can be. Holding at least $5 of any beacon unlocks likes, comments and reposts; posting starts at Shrimp.
Devs get exactly one post, published together with their launch. Louder voices cost real skin in the game.
Paid reach and earned reach, kept honest.
Projects can pay for attention two ways: a Token Booster banner slot that runs for five hours, or Token Premium stars that decay in public. Both sit next to lists money cannot touch: most-reposted and most on-chain volume.
Stars tick down every two minutes, so a place in the top 10 is a running cost, not a one-time capture.
Built on Arc.
- Network: Arc, Circle’s USDC-native L1 · chain id 5042002 (testnet).
- Gas: paid in USDC, so costs read like money, not like gwei.
- Finality: sub-second, which is why the curve feels instant.
- Everything on-chain: launches, trades, graduations; the site is a lens, not a ledger.
Testnet phase:today’s tokens and balances carry no real value. The current contracts enforce the curve, fees and graduation; per-launch fee routing and the $LIGHT burn land with contract v2 before mainnet, after audit.