The core idea in one sentence
Instead of a fixed-price presale or a normal trading pool from block one, a bonding curve prices each buy and sell algorithmically against a shared reserve, price rises smoothly as more tokens are bought, and falls as they're sold back, following a fixed formula rather than order-book supply and demand.
The actual math: constant product
ScanHood's curve uses the same x·y=k constant-product formula that powers Uniswap itself, seeded with a virtual ETH reserve so price starts low and rises smoothly rather than at zero. There's no presale and no team allocation anywhere in the mechanism: the entire token supply is minted straight to the curve contract at creation, every single token in circulation was bought by someone, at a price the formula set, no exceptions.
Graduation: what happens when the curve fills up
Each curve coin has a fixed ETH target. Once real ETH raised on the curve crosses that target, anyone (not just the creator) can trigger graduation: the curve wraps the raised ETH into WETH, opens a full-range Uniswap V3 pool at the curve's final price, and mints the liquidity position. That position NFT stays inside the curve contract forever, there is no function that can move it back out. Curve trading closes at that exact point, the coin now trades on the open V3 pool like any normal token, fully graduated to permanent, locked liquidity.
Why this is structurally hard to rug, before graduation
- No team allocation to dump. The creator holds nothing beyond whatever they bought like anyone else, there's no free supply sitting in a wallet waiting to be sold on unsuspecting buyers.
- No pool to pull. Before graduation there's no separate liquidity pool the creator could withdraw from, ETH raised lives inside the curve's own reserve math, governed entirely by the buy/sell formula.
- Sell is always available. Anyone holding curve tokens can sell back to the curve at the current formula price at any time before graduation, this function has no owner-only gate.
This is exactly why ScanHood's scanner treats a real, legitimate curve-stage token differently from a token with "no pool" for an unrelated reason, see the honeypot guide for how that distinction shows up in a scan result.
What graduation does and doesn't guarantee
Frequently asked
Can the graduation target or fee be changed after a coin launches on the curve?
No. Each coin's fee and target are fixed at creation and apply for that coin's entire life on the curve, there's no mechanism to change the terms partway through for a coin that's already live.
What happens if a curve coin never reaches its graduation target?
It just keeps trading on the curve indefinitely, buyable and sellable at the formula price, with no forced deadline. Graduation is triggered by crossing the ETH target, not by time passing.
Who can trigger graduation once the target is hit?
Anyone, not just the creator. This is deliberate: it means graduation can't be delayed or withheld by the creator once the real conditions are met.
Is a pre-graduation curve token shown on ScanHood's screener and Trenches board?
Yes, curve-stage launches are tracked and shown as "New" on the Trenches board with a ScanHood platform tag, even before they have a normal trading pool, since the scanner recognizes the curve contract's own record of the token directly.