Frequently asked questions

Getting started

Do I need crypto experience? No, but you do need a wallet and some ETH on Robinhood Chain. While StartupOS is in early access, you also need a personal access code. Start with Getting started, then Getting ETH onto Robinhood Chain. The app's Learn section covers the basics.

Why does the site show "Under development" and ask for an access code? While StartupOS is in early access, it is invite-only. Every page shows an Under development screen until you enter your personal access code. Then you connect your wallet and sign in. The first wallet that signs in with a code claims it, and from then on the code works only with that wallet. If you need it moved to another wallet, or you are stuck on that screen, see Support.

Which network is this? Robinhood Chain, on two networks: mainnet (chain ID 4663) where tokens have real value, and testnet (chain ID 46630) where they do not. Some features arrive on one before the other. Network and addresses lists what is available on each, along with every contract address.

Can I try it without spending real money? Yes. On Robinhood Chain testnet you can launch, buy, sell and claim with free test ETH from the faucet. Nothing on testnet has any value and nothing carries over to mainnet. While StartupOS is in early access, the testnet site needs an access code too. A few features work differently there, and Network and addresses lists them.

How do I get ETH to start? Bridge ETH you already hold onto Robinhood Chain. See Getting ETH onto Robinhood Chain.

Launching

How much does it cost to launch? Nothing to StartupOS. You pay network gas only. You need to be signed in to launch.

What is the difference between Instant and bonding curve? They are the two launch models, and you pick one on the Create page.

• Bonding curve: your token sells along a price curve that rises as people buy. It sells out after about $14,170 of net buying, then moves into a Uniswap pool with its liquidity locked forever. This is called graduation.
• Instant: your token trades in its own Uniswap V4 pool from the launch transaction, with no curve and no graduation. Instant tokens can carry a holder tax that funds holder rewards, a weekly lottery and buyback and burn.

See Launching a token.

How much does the price rise on a bonding curve? By 14.7 times, from the first token to the last one off the curve, on every curve launch. A curve opens at a market cap of about $4,660 and reaches about $68,500 when it sells out, after about $14,170 of net buying. The rise is back-loaded: the first half of the curve takes about $2,930 and lifts the price 2.5 times, and the second half takes about $11,240. Each curve is sized in its pair currency when it launches, so these dollar figures hold at the prices of that moment. See Launching a token.

What does an Instant token open at? On an ETH pair, the whole supply opens at a value of about 0.98 ETH. Paired with another token, it opens at about 1 whole unit of that token: on a USDG pair, that is about 1 USDG, or about $1. The whole supply goes into the pool with nothing on the other side, and there is no price ceiling.

Do I pick Uniswap V3 or V4? You pick the launch model, and both end up on Uniswap V4. Instant tokens trade in a V4 pool from launch, and bonding-curve tokens graduate into one. Curve tokens launched on mainnet before October 18, 2026 graduate to Uniswap V3 instead. See Network and addresses.

Auto-Burn, Standard or Tax-Free, which should I pick? All three work on both launch models, and Auto-Burn is the default.

• Standard pays you the most: 0.7% of every trade.
• Auto-Burn pays you 0.4% of every trade and puts part of the fee toward burning the token, so supply keeps shrinking.
• Tax-Free charges no fee and pays nobody, so you earn nothing from it.

Standard and Auto-Burn are a choice between paying yourself and shrinking supply. Tax-Free gives up your income to make the token as cheap as possible to trade. You cannot change the type afterwards. See Fees and burns.

If Tax-Free pays me nothing, why would I pick it? Because holders pay no fee on any buy or sell, so fees never drag on the price. That can matter more to a community than the creator's cut does. You are choosing the token's appeal over your own income, permanently.

Does Tax-Free stay free forever? Yes. The pool fee is zero and the hook charges nothing, for the token's whole life, on an Instant token and on a bonding-curve token after it graduates. The one exception is a Tax-Free curve token launched on mainnet before October 18, 2026: its Uniswap V3 pool charges 0.05% after graduation, and all of that goes to buying the token back and burning it.

Should I add a holder tax? It is optional, and only Instant tokens can have one. The holder tax is an extra 1% or 2% on every buy and sell, on top of the fee, and you choose where it goes:

• Holder rewards: all of it goes to the token's rewards pool, which pays holders and funds the weekly lottery.
• Rewards and burn: half goes to the rewards pool, half to buyback and burn.

A higher tax pays holders more and makes every trade cost more. The tax is fixed for the token's life, and Tax-Free tokens cannot have one. Holder rewards, the lottery and buyback and burn run on mainnet and testnet.

Can I pair my token with something other than ETH? Where that is open, yes. You can choose another token as the pair currency at launch. Your fee, earnings and, on an Instant token, holder rewards and buybacks are then all in that token, so pick one you trust. A bonding curve can only launch against a pair token that has a dollar price, because the curve is sized in dollars. Instant launches work with any pair token. The app marks pair tokens that have not been vetted, and it warns you on the form if buyers will not be able to pay in ETH for the pair you picked. See Launching a token and Risk disclosures.

Will people be able to buy my token with ETH? Usually. On an Instant token, buyers press Pay with ETH and the swap through your pair currency happens in one transaction, so they never have to hold the pair token. On a bonding curve paired with another token, Pay with ETH works for buying only, and after graduation into Uniswap V4 it works as on an Instant token. Either way it needs a Uniswap pool between ETH and your pair currency. If there is none, the form says so before you launch, and buyers will need the pair token itself. Most people hold only ETH, so that is a much smaller audience. Pairing with ETH avoids the question entirely. See Paying for a trade.

Can I change the name or ticker later? No. Name, ticker, image and supply are fixed at launch. Adding a longer description and links to your token page will come with page customisation, which is not available yet.

Can I change how my token page looks? Not yet. Page customisation is not available yet on either network. When it opens, you will be able to choose a theme, colours and typeface, pick and reorder the optional parts of the page, and add a description and links. The safety card, the Buy and Sell panel and every number on the page will stay exactly as they are on every other token. See Customising your token page.

Can I go live when I launch? Yes. Choose Go live after launch on the Create page to start a live stream for your token. See Live streams.

Should I buy my own token at launch? It is optional. Buying in the launch transaction gets you the opening price before anyone else can trade. As the creator you have no anti-snipe cap, so you can buy any amount. The form has presets for 1%, 5% and 10% of the supply that fill in what each costs. Check the share before you confirm, because at the opening price a round figure buys more than you might expect. The amount starts at zero and stays off until you tick the box, so you cannot do it by accident.

My token launched but the page is empty. A new token takes a few moments to appear. The page keeps retrying on its own, so give it a little time.

Trading

Why did my trade fail? Most often slippage: the price moved more than your tolerance while the transaction was pending. Other causes are listed in Trading and pricing.

This token is paired with something I do not hold. Can I still buy it with ETH? Usually, yes, when a Uniswap pool links ETH to the pair currency. In a Uniswap V4 pool, Pay with ETH does the whole thing in one transaction. On a bonding curve paired with another token, it works for buying only, and the panel shows whether it takes one transaction or two steps. It is not offered on a token that graduated to Uniswap V3.

If there is no route, the panel says you cannot pay in ETH here and the (i) beside it tells you why. You will then need the pair token itself. On testnet, Pay with ETH is not offered for tokens paired with another token. See Paying for a trade.

Why does this token show a dash instead of a market cap? Because there is no reliable dollar value for its pair currency, so there is nothing to convert its price into. Pair currencies on the launch list have one; a token somebody pasted in at launch may not, until the team lists it.

The token is not broken and it trades exactly as any other does. Its price in the pair currency is always shown. Only the dollar figures are missing, and it sorts as unranked on boards ordered by market cap.

My buy reverted seconds after a launch. That is probably the anti-snipe window. For the first 2 blocks after a launch, about 24 seconds, every wallet except the creator can buy at most 5% of the supply and hold at most 5%. You can buy in the launch block itself, within those limits. Wait a moment and try again, or buy a smaller amount.

Is there ever a time I cannot buy or sell? Yes, in a few situations. When a bonding curve sells out, its token cannot be traded until it moves into its Uniswap pool. StartupOS's keeper usually triggers that automatically, and anyone can. Bonding-curve trading also stops while the factory is paused. Instant tokens cannot be paused, and sells are never limited by the anti-snipe window.

Why does selling take two transactions? Because a sale needs your approval first, which lets the contract move that token for you. How often you see it depends on the token and your wallet.

• Tokens in a Uniswap V4 pool: if your wallet can batch calls, the approval and the sale go through in one confirmation, for the exact amount. Other wallets, Rabby among them, approve the token once and sign a gas-free Permit2 message. One Permit2 signature covers that token for 30 days, so later trades ask only for the trade.
• Bonding-curve tokens, and tokens that graduated to Uniswap V3: each sale approves exactly its own amount, so every sale is two transactions, the approval and then the sale, whatever your wallet.

See Paying for a trade.

Why does my wallet ask me to sign a message? Signing a message costs no gas. StartupOS asks for two kinds:

• Sign-in, after you connect. It proves the wallet is yours and is not a transaction. You need it to launch, comment and chat, but not to trade. You can decline it, except while StartupOS is in early access, when signing in is part of getting in.
• A Permit2 signature, before some trades on Instant tokens. It lets Uniswap's router use your approval for that token, through Uniswap's Permit2 contract. One Permit2 signature covers that token for 30 days, so later trades ask only for the trade.

Read what your wallet shows before you sign, and never sign anything on a site you do not trust. See Paying for a trade.

I bought and sold straight away and lost money even though the price went up. Each leg pays the 1% fee on Standard and Auto-Burn, plus any holder tax, so a round trip is always a loss. On an Instant Tax-Free token nothing is charged, so only gas and price impact apply. Paying with ETH on a token paired with something else adds the swap's own pool fee on each leg too.

Why did my sell move the price so much? On an Instant token, the pool starts with the token alone. The ETH or pair token you sell into is what earlier buyers put in, so early on there is not much of it and a large sell moves the price a long way. See Trading and pricing.

Why does this token have no pool address? It trades in a Uniswap V4 pool, as every Instant token does. Every V4 pool lives inside one shared contract and is identified by a pool ID, so there is no separate pool contract to link to. The token itself has an address, as always.

Can an AI agent trade for me? An agent can trade with its own wallet, once you have claimed it and it has proved that wallet. StartupOS holds no key material and cannot sign anything, so it prepares an unsigned transaction and the agent signs it itself. An agent can never spend from your wallet unless you hand it your own key, which is entirely outside StartupOS. See AI agents.

Fees and earnings

What does trading cost? It depends on the token's type. Every figure is a share of the trade, and the splits are the same on every network.

Type	Fee	Creator	Burn	Platform
Standard	1%	0.7%	none	0.3%
Auto-Burn	1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
Tax-Free	none	none	none	none

An Instant token with a holder tax adds 1% or 2% on top. A bonding-curve token keeps the same fee after it graduates into Uniswap V4. One that graduated into Uniswap V3 pays that pool's fee instead: 1%, or 0.05% for Tax-Free. See Fees and burns.

The app says "zero-fee minting", is trading free? That phrase refers to launching only. Standard and Auto-Burn tokens charge a 1% fee on every trade. Tax-Free tokens charge none, apart from a 0.05% pool fee on a Tax-Free curve token that graduated into Uniswap V3.

Does the fee ever change during a token's life? No. A token's fee, split and any holder tax are fixed at launch for life, and a bonding-curve token keeps them after it graduates into Uniswap V4. The exception is a curve token that graduated into Uniswap V3, which only tokens launched on mainnet before October 18, 2026 do: its trades pay the V3 pool fee instead, 1%, or 0.05% for Tax-Free.

Where does the fee actually come from? On an Instant token, the hook takes it out of each trade in the pair currency: a share of what you pay on a buy, and of what you receive on a sell. The Uniswap pool fee itself is zero. On a bonding-curve token, the fee is added to a buy and taken from a sell's proceeds.

What does graduation cost? One fee, and which one depends on the pair: a flat 0.01 ETH on an ETH market, or 2% of what the curve raised on a market paired with another token. It is one or the other, never both. It goes to the treasury with a matching share of the held-back tokens, so the pool opens at the curve's closing price. There is no charge for creating the pool, and nothing is burned at graduation.

Is the burn in ETH or in tokens? On a bonding-curve token, the burn share is taken in tokens and burned on every trade. On an Instant token, the burn share is collected in the pair currency and spent on buyback and burn. After a bonding-curve token graduates into Uniswap V4, its burn share is collected in the pair currency, as on an Instant token. In a Uniswap V3 pool, the burn share of the pool fees is burned in tokens or spent buying the token back.

How does buyback and burn work? On a token in a Uniswap V4 pool, the burn share, plus the burn half of a Rewards and burn tax, builds a budget in the pair currency. StartupOS's buyback contract spends that budget buying the token in its own pool and burns what it buys, so total supply really falls. Buybacks are small and price-limited, and nobody can withdraw the budget. On mainnet it runs for tokens launched since October 18, 2026. See Risk disclosures for the limits.

Where are my creator earnings? On your token's page, and in My tokens, which lists everything you have launched.

• Instant tokens: a Creator earnings card shows what is waiting, delivered and held. Anyone can press Deliver earnings to the creator and pay the gas, and the money always goes to you, in the pair currency. If a delivery failed, you see Collect held earnings.
• Bonding-curve tokens: your share builds up in the pair currency (ETH, unless the token is paired with another token) and is paid to you when a claim is run, which anyone can do. After graduation into Uniswap V4, you are paid through Deliver, like an Instant token. A token in a Uniswap V3 pool needs a collection of its pool fees first, and anyone can run it.

See Creator rewards.

My earnings balance is not moving even though the token is trading. In a Uniswap V4 pool, earnings wait under Waiting to be delivered until someone presses Deliver earnings to the creator. In a Uniswap V3 pool, a graduated token's pool fees wait until someone presses Run Collect & Burn, for example from the Keeper page, and a minimum amount, currently 0.005 WETH, has to have built up first.

I launched a Tax-Free token and have no earnings. That is expected and cannot be switched on. Tax-Free tokens charge no fee, so there is nothing to share with anyone.

Can the team raise fees on my token? Not on a token that already exists. Terms are fixed at launch, for life, and changes apply only to later launches. An Instant token's fee plus holder tax can never exceed 10%.

Where does the platform's share go? To the StartupOS treasury. See Protocol revenue and buyback and burn, and Protocol analytics for platform-wide figures.

Holder rewards and the lottery

Holder rewards, the weekly lottery and buyback and burn run on mainnet for every token launched since October 18, 2026, and on testnet. A mainnet token launched before then keeps its holder tax and burn share, held for it, but its payouts have not started yet. The answers below describe how they work.

How do holder rewards work? An Instant token with a holder tax pays it into that token's rewards pool, in the pair currency. Each day (24 hours, UTC), 90% of the pool is shared among holders in proportion to their average balance over the day, and 10% goes to the token's weekly lottery. To earn for a day, your average position has to be worth at least $100. See Holder rewards and the weekly lottery.

How do I claim holder rewards? On the Rewards page, or the Holder rewards card on the token's page. Each token shows From holder rewards, From the weekly lottery and Already claimed. You pay the gas, and the money goes to your wallet. Rewards are updated once a day, and an amount becomes claimable once you are owed at least $20. Smaller amounts carry forward.

I sold my tokens. Do I lose rewards I already earned? No. What you have already earned stays yours. It becomes claimable once you are owed at least $20, so a smaller amount waits until it reaches that.

Why am I not earning holder rewards? Check that the token has a holder tax and, on mainnet, that it launched on or after October 18, 2026. Then check that your average position was worth at least $100 for the day, and that the day's rewards have been published. Addresses that hold tokens for the system, such as the pool and StartupOS's own contracts, never earn.

The thresholds are in dollars, so a token whose pair currency has no dollar value cannot have its day worked out, and its rewards wait until one exists. Those are the same tokens that show a dash instead of a market cap.

How does the weekly lottery work? Each Instant token with a holder tax runs its own weekly draw.

• Weeks run Monday to Sunday, UTC.
• The pot is the 10% lottery share of that week's rewards, plus anything rolled over.
• To enter, hold at least $500 of the token at the end of the week.
• Your chances follow dollar-days: holding $1 for one day is one point.
• Ten different winners each get a tenth of the pot. If fewer than ten holders qualify, the unused prizes roll into next week.
• Prizes are added to your holder rewards claim.

Winners are drawn with an on-chain randomness oracle built on the Pyth Entropy design. If it has not answered after several requests, that week is drawn with a seed a StartupOS administrator submits after the entry list is published. See Risk disclosures and Holder rewards and the weekly lottery for the full rules.

The FOMO jackpot and baskets

What is the FOMO jackpot? A last-buyer-wins game paid in USDG. Anyone can buy tickets. The first buy starts a 24-hour clock, and every later buy adds 30 seconds. When the clock runs out, the last buyer takes 50% of the pot and ticket holders share 30%. Tickets cost more as the pot grows. See The FOMO jackpot.

What is a basket? A token backed by fixed amounts of 2 to 8 listed assets, such as tokenized stocks, which you can always burn back into those amounts. Anyone can create one from the assets StartupOS lists, and a launched token can use a basket as its pair currency. See Baskets.

Tokens and safety

Two tokens have the same name. Which is real? Neither, inherently. Names and tickers are not unique. Check the contract address.

Does StartupOS have its own token? No. Treat any token offered as StartupOS's own coin as fake.

Can I pay to promote my token? No. Treat any offer to promote or boost a token on StartupOS as fake.

How much of a new token can its creator buy? Any amount. The anti-snipe limits apply to every wallet except the creator's, so a creator can hold a large share from the first second. Check Dev holds on the token's safety card before you buy. See Risk disclosures.

What does the risk badge mean? It summarises how concentrated the supply is. It is a signal only. A launch approval does not vet a token.

Can the creator pull the liquidity? No. An Instant token's position is held by a StartupOS locker from the moment its pool is created, and a bonding-curve token's position goes straight to a locker at graduation. Neither locker has any code path that can remove liquidity or move the position out, for the creator or for the team.

Can somebody open my token's pool before me and sabotage the launch? No. Anyone can open a Uniswap V4 pool, and opening one that already exists fails, so this would otherwise be a real attack. The hook on an Instant token's pool rejects any opener other than a token the StartupOS factory deployed, so an attacker's attempt fails before the pool exists. See The pool and the liquidity lock.

A token page looks completely different from the others. Is it fake? Every token page uses the same design today, because page customisation is not available yet. If a page looks very different, check the web address in your browser and the contract address. Once customisation opens, a creator will be able to restyle their own token's page, and the safety card, the Buy and Sell panel and every number will still stay exactly as they are on every other token. See Reading a token page.

What do the token statuses mean?

Status	Meaning
pending	Created, waiting to confirm on-chain
live / unpaused	Trading normally
paused	The factory is paused, which stops bonding-curve trading. Instant pools cannot be paused
migrated	A bonding-curve token that has graduated to its Uniswap pool
failed_to_initialize	The launch transaction never succeeded, so the token was never deployed

Some of these show as raw text on the token page. failed_to_initialize means there is nothing there to trade.

Account

Can I change my username? Once. After that it is locked.

Why can I not comment? Comments are for holders. You need to hold the token and be signed in.

What notifications will I get? Two kinds: a creator you follow launched a new token, and announcements from StartupOS. Trades on your own tokens do not send one. See Your account.

How do I message someone? From their profile, using the Message button. There is no search or new-message composer on the Messages page. See Your account.

How do I earn points? By referring someone. When a person who used your code makes their first transaction, a buy, a sell or a confirmed launch, you both get a point. Entering a code on its own earns nothing, and trading or launching earns nothing unless a referral is attached to it. Referral points are paused on mainnet right now, so no points are being paid. Codes still work, and nobody loses eligibility. See Rewards, points and referrals.

What are points worth? Nothing today. There is no way to spend them. They rank you on a leaderboard.

What do these words mean? See the Glossary.

Still stuck

Email support@startupos.fun with your wallet address and, if relevant, the token address and transaction hash. Never share your seed phrase with anyone. See Support.