How Mutate works
Where things stand
This site runs the curve maths and the mutation engine in TypeScript, with tests. The on-chain program that will enforce them is not written or deployed yet, so no coin can be launched or traded. This page describes the design the program is specified to follow.
The idea
A normal memecoin is the same thing at $5K and at $5M. A Mutate coin carries DNA: a list of market caps, and what the coin does when it reaches each one. It can change how it looks, pay its holders, burn supply or drop tokens.
The DNA
The creator writes the DNA before launch. It holds up to 10 mutations, each with a market cap in USD and up to 4 changes. The market caps must go up. At launch the DNA is stored with the coin and becomes read-only: there is no instruction to edit it, for anyone.
What a mutation can do
| Change | The exact rule | Paid from |
|---|---|---|
| New image | The image in the token metadata is replaced by the one set at launch for this mutation. The mint address and the ticker stay the same. | Nothing moves |
| New name | The name in the token metadata is replaced. The ticker never changes, so the coin stays findable under the same symbol and address. | Nothing moves |
| New description | The description in the token metadata is replaced by the text set at launch for this mutation. | Nothing moves |
| Hidden message | A text written at launch and stored as a hash. It is published on the coin page when the mutation happens. It can't be edited after launch. | Nothing moves |
| Holder reward | A set percentage of the SOL in the pot is split between the N largest holders, pro rata to their balance. The pool, the airdrop reserve and the creator's dev buy are not counted as holders. | The coin's fee pot |
| Buyback and burn | A set percentage of the SOL in the pot buys the coin on its own curve, with no fee. The tokens bought are burned, which lowers the supply. | The coin's fee pot |
| Airdrop | A set percentage of the supply, reserved at launch and kept out of the curve, is split between the N largest holders, pro rata to their balance. A coin's DNA can reserve at most 10% of the supply. | Reserve set aside at launch |
| Fee change | The trade fee is set to a new value from this mutation on. It can never go above 2%. | Nothing moves |
The pot
Every trade pays a fee, 1% by default. Half goes to Mutate. The other half is the creator's share, and it does not go to the creator directly: it goes into the coin's pot.
- The pot can't be touched between two mutations.
- When a mutation happens, its holder payout and its buyback take their set percentage of the pot. The rest is released to the creator, and the pot starts again from zero.
- So “30% of the pot” means 30% of the creator's fees collected since the previous mutation.
- After the last mutation there is nothing left to fund, and the creator's share is paid directly.
Holder payouts and airdrops are split pro rata between the largest holders. The pool, the airdrop reserve and the creator's dev buy are not holders. The program is specified to rank holders on their average balance since the previous mutation, not on a snapshot, so buying right before a mutation earns almost nothing.
When a mutation happens
Market cap is the curve price times the circulating supply, converted to USD with the Pyth SOL/USD feed. It is checked on every buy. When it is at or above the next number in the DNA, that mutation happens inside the same transaction. One large buy can set off several in a row; the first one empties the pot.
Mutations are one-way. If the price falls back, the coin keeps what it became and nothing is taken back.
Hidden looks
A creator can hide a future image, name or description. Buyers then see “???” for that mutation, and only a hash of the content is public until it happens. Hidden messages work the same way. Changes that move SOL or tokens, and fee changes, can't be hidden.
Coins that stop
If a coin with unused DNA goes 30 days without mutating, anyone can call a function that sends the pot to the top 50 holders. A creator can't sit on a pot by choosing a market cap nobody will reach.
The curve
Coins trade on a constant-product curve with 30 SOL of virtual liquidity and a supply of one billion. All maths are integers and every rounding favours the pool, so buying and selling straight back never makes a profit. Sells can't be paused or blocked.
Limits
- Trade fee: never above 2%, whatever the DNA says.
- Airdrops: at most 10% of the supply across the whole DNA, reserved at launch.
- Launch fee: 0.05 SOL plus network rent.
- The ticker and the mint address never change.