What Happens When a Solana Token Graduates? Bonding Curve to Raydium, Explained
Graduation is the moment a bonding-curve token leaves the curve and starts trading on a regular DEX pool. On JetForge it happens automatically once 85 SOL has been raised: the token moves to Raydium at the curve's final price, the LP tokens are burned, and the creator receives 5% of the raised SOL.
When 85 SOL has been raised on a JetForge token's bonding curve:
- Trading on the curve stops.
- 90% of the SOL (76.5 SOL), plus any unused buyback funds, goes into a new Raydium pool.
- The creator gets 5% (4.25 SOL) and the platform 5% (4.25 SOL).
- The pool opens at the curve's final price, so there is no price jump or drop at graduation.
- The LP tokens are burned, so the liquidity can never be withdrawn.
Why tokens graduate at all
A bonding curve is a pricing formula: every buy raises the price, every sell lowers it, and the curve itself is the only counterparty. That is ideal for a fair start, because everyone buys from the same formula. But a curve has a fixed amount of tokens, and serious trading needs a normal pool that aggregators, wallets and other DEXs can route to. Graduation hands the token over from the curve to that pool once it has proven real demand.
On JetForge the bar is 85 SOL raised on the curve. The curve sells up to 700 million tokens; the other 300 million are held back for the DEX pool.
What happens, step by step
- The curve completes. The buy that takes the raised SOL to 85 marks the curve complete. If a buy would overshoot, it is only partly filled: the buyer gets the remaining tokens and pays only for those. From this point the curve accepts no more trades.
- The fee vaults are settled.Any trading fees the creator has not withdrawn are paid out to them, and any SOL left in the token's buyback vault is added to the pool's liquidity.
- The SOL is split. Of the 85 SOL raised, 5% goes to the creator as a graduation reward, 5% to the platform, and 90% to the pool.
- The pool is sized to the curve's final price. The number of tokens put into the pool is chosen so that SOL ÷ tokens equals the last price on the curve. Reserve tokens that are not needed for that, and any unsold curve tokens, are burned.
- The Raydium pool is created and the LP is burned.JetForge's graduation service creates a Raydium pool with that SOL and those tokens, then burns the LP tokens it receives.
Steps 1 to 4 are done on-chain by the JetForge program, and anyone can trigger them once the curve is complete. For step 5, the program hands the pool's SOL and tokens to the platform's graduation wallet, which creates the Raydium pool and burns the LP tokens straight away.
The numbers for a token that graduates at 85 SOL
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| SOL raised on the curve | 85 SOL |
| To the Raydium pool | 76.5 SOL (+ unused buyback funds) |
| Creator graduation reward | 4.25 SOL (+ unwithdrawn trading fees) |
| Platform graduation fee | 4.25 SOL |
| Price at graduation | ≈ 0.000000465 SOL per token (about 14.7× the launch price) |
| Tokens in the Raydium pool | ≈ 164 million |
| Reserve tokens burned | ≈ 136 million |
| Total supply after graduation | ≈ 864 million (from 1 billion) |
Figures for a token whose curve completes at exactly 85 SOL with an empty buyback vault. Buybacks before graduation burn additional tokens, and leftover buyback SOL makes the pool deeper.
Why the opening price matters
If a DEX pool is seeded at a different ratio from the curve's final price, the token jumps or drops the moment it lands on the DEX. Early holders can be hit by a sudden drop, and bots can trade the gap. JetForge avoids this by sizing the pool from the curve itself, so the first Raydium price matches the last curve price.
Burning the unused reserve tokens matters too: they never reach the market, so holders own a larger share of the remaining supply.
How other launchpads handle graduation
Graduation works differently on each platform. pump.fun, for example, graduates tokens to its own DEX, PumpSwap, for a 0.015 SOL fee, and keeps paying creators a share of PumpSwap trading fees afterwards, according to its fee page (checked 19 October 2026). JetForge pays the creator a one-time 5% of the raised SOL instead, and graduates to Raydium. See the full JetForge vs pump.fun comparison.
What it means for holders
- Your tokens stay in your wallet; nothing needs to be claimed or migrated.
- You trade on Raydium afterwards, directly or through Jupiter and most Solana wallets.
- The pool's liquidity is permanent because the LP tokens are burned.
- JetForge earns nothing after graduation. Raydium charges 0.25% per swap on standard pools: 84% stays in the pool (whose LP tokens are burned, so it deepens liquidity) and 16% goes to Raydium, per its fee docs.
Watch tokens that are close to graduating on the trending page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean when a Solana token graduates?
On a bonding-curve launchpad, a token trades against a formula until its curve completes. Graduation is the moment the curve closes and the token's liquidity moves to a regular DEX pool, where it trades like any other token. On JetForge that happens once 85 SOL has been raised, and the pool is created on Raydium.
Does the price drop when a token graduates?
It depends on how the pool is sized. On JetForge the Raydium pool is seeded with SOL and tokens in the same ratio as the curve's final price, so the token opens on Raydium at the price it last traded at on the curve. After that, the price moves with normal buying and selling.
Can I still trade a token after it graduates?
Yes. After graduation the bonding curve stops trading and the token trades on its Raydium pool instead, through Raydium, Jupiter or any wallet or aggregator that routes to Raydium.
Can the creator pull liquidity after graduation?
No. On JetForge the LP tokens for the Raydium pool are burned, so nobody — not the creator and not JetForge — can withdraw the pool's liquidity.
What does the creator get at graduation on JetForge?
5% of the SOL raised on the curve (4.25 SOL when 85 SOL is raised), plus any of their 40% trading-fee share they have not withdrawn yet.
1% trading fee, 40% of it to the creator, per-token buyback and burn, and graduation to Raydium at the curve's final price.