Part III: The machine
11. Fees
Every fee in the system, in one place. Rates are the deployed values.
| fee | parameter | rate | paid by | goes to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| curve trade | feeBps |
1.00% each way | curve buyer | 50% the meme's creator, 50% protocol |
| launch and listing | flat | per launch | the launcher | protocol |
| Desk spread, in hours | baseSpreadBps |
0.30% | Desk trader | retained by the vault |
| Desk spread, out of hours | ahSpreadBps |
2.00% | Desk trader | retained by the vault, in full |
| Desk size impact | maxImpactBps |
0 to 2.00%, quadratic to the cap | Desk trader | retained by the vault |
| Desk transaction fee | txFeeBps |
0.40% | Desk trader | paid away, to holders and the launch queue |
| protocol slice | protocolFeeBps |
0.00% | the Desk LP | protocol |
| staker slice | stakerFeeBps |
0.10% | the Desk LP | cap market stakers |
| launcher slice | launcherFeeBps |
0.10% | the Desk LP | the market's launcher |
| pool swap | pool fee | 1.00% per hop | pool swapper | that pool's LPs |
Three things the grid does not say on its own.
A Desk trade costs the sum of its row group, not one row. In hours and at negligible size that is 0.30% plus 0.40%, so 0.70%. Out of hours at the cap it is 2.00% plus 2.00% plus 0.40%, so 4.40%. Impact is the only part that depends on the trade.
A route through the pools pays twice. USDG to MEME crosses the quote hop and the meme hop, so a 1.00% pool fee is 2.00% on the round trip in, and the same again coming out.
The three slices are subtractions, not widenings. protocolFeeBps,
stakerFeeBps and launcherFeeBps total 0.20% and come out of what the vault
retained. Nothing in the quote is widened to fund them, so they are paid by the
Desk LP rather than by the trader.
Grouped by who actually pays.
A curve buyer, on the launch venue. feeBps 1% of every curve buy and sell,
split 50/50 between the meme's creator and the protocol. Flat launch and listing
fees.
A Desk trader, as a wider price. baseSpreadBps 30 in hours, ahSpreadBps
200 outside them, maxImpactBps up to 200 at the cap, txFeeBps 40. The first
three are retained by the vault. The last is paid away.
The out of hours widening is the one to understand, because it is the largest and it is entirely the vault's. Nothing is carved out of it. It exists because quoting a company while its own exchange is closed is a genuinely worse position to be in, and the vault is the party carrying that, so it is the party paid for it.
The Desk LP, out of the retained spread. protocolFeeBps 0, stakerFeeBps
10, launcherFeeBps 10. These are subtractions from LP equity that no widening
funds.
A pool swapper. 1.00% per hop, and the USDG to MEME route crosses two pools, so it is paid twice. The graduated meme pool's position belongs to the Graduator with no removal path, so those fees accrue to a position nobody can collect, which is deliberate for a pool that should never be pulled.
The 0.4% txFeeBps is the fee the essay describes as funding holders and the
next market in the queue. The routing is designed and the sinks are registry
addresses, so it is one deployment away. Today those sinks resolve to the
deployer key and the FeeRouter that would push the protocol's share into the
launch queue is written and not deployed. The flywheel is built and not turning.