VELOS
…
How it works

The first buyer
shouldn't be the dev.

On most bonding-curve launchpads the best seat is reserved: the dev creates the token and, in the same block, buys half the supply or more through 20+ wallets. Everyone after that is exit liquidity. This launchpad makes that play expensive, slow and visible. The extra fee it costs the bundler buys the token back and burns it, and honest devs earn more by running clean launches.

Showing the standard defaults: the live numbers couldn't be loaded.

01

The bundle problem

A typical bundled launch goes like this:

  1. The dev funds 20–50 fresh wallets.
  2. One atomic bundle creates the token and fires every wallet's buy in the same block, at the lowest prices the curve will ever have.
  3. The dev now holds 50%+ of the supply, spread so it looks like a crowd of separate holders.
  4. Real buyers arrive, push the price up, and the wallets sell into them. The chart dies.

Traders lose because they buy from the bundle at a markup. Honest devs lose too: nobody can tell their launch from a rug, so communities stop showing up. On a curve with no rules it takes about the same SOL as buying in normally, and it's over before anyone can react.

No rules20 wallets, one bundleblock 0everyone else arrives after it's overProtectedthe same 20 buysper-slot cap, everyone combinedslot 1 → slot 12 (~5s), every buy at close to the opening feebundle wallet buyeveryone else
Each block is one buy. With no rules, the whole bundle lands before anyone else can act. Under launch protection the same buys need many slots and transactions, compete with real traders in each one, and pay the opening fee.
02

How a launch works

Every launch moves through the same three stages. The labels match what you see on each token.

Protected

First 7.5 minutes of trading

A high opening fee that steps down every 5 seconds, a per-slot cap all buyers share that rises every 5 seconds, and no buys routed through other programs.

Live

Normal curve trading

At the 1% base fee. Price follows x·y = k and the program quotes exactly what you'll get.

Graduated

At 63 SOL raised

Usually in the same transaction as the last buy, otherwise within seconds by the keeper (anyone can): the SOL raised seeds a Raydium pool at the exact final price. The LP is locked for good right after, and unsold tokens are burned.

Every token has the same 1B supply and the same price curve. 78.8% of the supply is sold on the curve; the rest is held back to seed the pool. Market cap always starts at 20 SOL and graduates around 320 SOL.

03

The anti-bundle rules

Every rule is enforced by the on-chain program, not the website, so it applies to bots and scripts too. Every launch made on this site uses these settings. The program also accepts other settings within hard limits, even with protection off, from launches created another way; those are labelled No protection everywhere they appear. The one exception is buying only through this site: that's a platform-wide switch creators can't turn off, and its per-connection limits are applied by the site's server.

Decaying snipe fee

10% → 1% over 7.5 minutes

The earliest buys pay the most. Selling during protection pays it too, so a quick flip pays twice.

Snipe tax → buyback & burn

Everything above 1%

All of it buys the token back on its curve, right after the taxed trade, and burns it.

Per-slot cap

1 → 4 SOL per slot, rising every 5 s, all buyers

20 wallets in one bundle land in one slot, so together they hit the same small cap as one wallet. No single buy can be bigger than the cap, so nobody grabs a big slice at the floor price.

Max per buy

Off by default

Off on launches made here. A launch created another way can cap every buy; buys then can't be stacked inside one transaction to dodge it.

No contract buys

During protection

Buys must come straight from a wallet, not routed through another program, so they can't be batched that way.

Buys only through this site

During protection

While a coin's protection lasts, every curve buy needs the platform's co-signature. It's given only to buys made here, and only once the coin is launched (or to the creator's dev buy in the launch itself), so terminals, trading bots and buys signed in advance can't take the open. Each connection also gets a limited number of wallets per coin, which slows bundling through the site without making it impossible. Once protection ends anyone can buy from anywhere, and selling is always open.

04

Bundle calculator

Drag the slider to pick how much of the supply a bundler wants. Both sides use the same curve; only the rules differ.

Launchpad without limits
Cost
19.28SOL
Fees paid
0.19SOL
Transactions
1 bundle
When
Block 0

20+ wallets buy atomically in the same block that creates the token, before anyone else can see it.

With launch protection
Cost
21.21SOL
Of which snipe tax
1.91SOL
Transactions
≥ 22
Slots
≥ 22~9s

Spread across separate slots and transactions that land next to everyone else's buys, at the opening fee. All of the snipe tax buys the token back and burns it.

Same bonding curve on both sides, so the only difference is the rules. The curve has 78.8% of the supply for sale, and buying 50% of the total supply pushes the market cap to ~72.89 SOL. This is the bundler's best case: it assumes nobody else buys in those slots. Selling during launch protection pays the same decaying fee again.

05

Why traders win

A fair openingSnipers and bundles pay up to 10% and share 1 SOL per slot between them at the open, while you watch the countdown and the live fee.
Their penalty, your buybackThe snipe tax buys the token back and burns it, so the supply you hold a share of shrinks.
No LP rugAt graduation the liquidity is locked forever. Nobody, the dev and the platform included, can pull it.
Fixed supply, honest tokenEvery token starts with exactly 1B, and buybacks only ever burn. No mint or freeze authority, and the on-chain name, ticker and metadata link can't be changed.
No jump at graduationThe pool opens at exactly the curve's final price, so late buyers aren't instantly underwater.
Exact quotesThe site uses the program's own math and rounding; you set slippage, and the program enforces it.
A safety netIf graduation is ever blocked, every token redeems for an equal share of the SOL. No race, no admin key.
See everythingEvery launch shows its protection status, every trade, the top holders, who launched it, and when protection ends.
A grade on every launchThe fairness report grades each opening from A to F from on-chain data: protection, who bought the opening, first-slot buying, a bundle check of how early buyers were funded, what the dev did, and how concentrated holders are. The grade is stamped on every card, and Clean opens shows only the A and B coins.
Watch the openingEvery coin's opening replays slot by slot: the buys against the shared cap, the fee stepping down, the snipe tax and what it burned, and who got in.
The dev's record on every cardEach card shows the creator's other coins on Velos: how many reached Raydium, their average grade, and how often the creator sold early.
Dev buys you can checkA creator can lock their dev buy in the launch transaction. It unlocks a little at a time, and each creator's profile shows what they did with their tokens on every launch.
06

Why devs win

Earn on every tradeA 0.5% creator fee on every trade, paid to your wallet, or to one you choose at launch: a team multisig, a treasury, a charity, or split between several. Or put it to work: holder rewards, or a flywheel that buys your coin back and burns it.
Keep earning after graduation50% of the locked pool's 1% trading fees paid in SOL go to you, for as long as it trades (fees paid in your token are burned).
Clean launches draw real tradersBuyers can verify protection was on, so you aren't judged by the rugs. More real buyers, more volume, more fees.
Snipers fund buybacksBots that rush your launch pay a tax that buys your token back and burns it, instead of draining your community.
Dev buys still allowedIn the launch transaction, under the same rules as everyone else, and visible on-chain. That's the point.
Same rules for every launchEvery launch here opens with the same fee, the same protection, the same supply and the same price curve, so buyers can compare launches at a glance.
Lock your dev buyLock it in the launch transaction for a day to a year, unlocking evenly; only you can claim what's unlocked. A Dev locked badge shows buyers you can't dump the locked tokens early.
A track record that follows youYour profile lists every launch with its fairness grade and what you did with your dev tokens, so clean launches earn you trust on the next one. Add a name, bio and X handle to it so buyers know who launched.
Announce your openSchedule the open up to 24 hours ahead and share the countdown. Protection makes a crowd at the open fair, so announcing it doesn't hand it to snipers.
No babysittingThe move to Raydium, the liquidity lock, protocol fees, fee-split shares and flywheel rounds all happen on their own. You claim your own creator fees whenever you like once a coin's reach 0.01 SOL, from its page or all at once from your profile.
07

Fees

At opentotal fee 10%After 7.5 minutestotal fee 1%Protocol 0.5%Creator 0.5%Snipe tax: all of it buys the token back and burns it
FeeAmountGoes to
Protocol0.5% per trade50% platform treasury; 10% the platform's keeper, for the network fees of migrations, liquidity locks and payouts (what it doesn't use goes back to the treasury); 40% rewards wallet, which pays referrers first, then daily rewards for top traders and developers
Creator0.5% per trade (default)Chosen at launch: the creator, another wallet, a GitHub account, a split of 2-10 recipients, its holders (holder rewards), or buybacks that burn the token (flywheel)
Snipe taxOpening fee above the base, decaying to 0All of it buys the token back and burns it
Creation0.01 SOL once, when launching0.001 SOL toward keeping the token's image and details pinned on IPFS; the rest to the platform
Migration0.25 SOL once, at graduationRaydium's 0.15 SOL pool-creation fee and ~0.05 SOL of pool and lock rent; the rest to the platform
Pool trading fee1% on RaydiumOf the fees paid in SOL, 50% to wherever the creator fee goes, the rest to the platform; fees paid in the token are burned

Fees accumulate inside each launch, always for the same fixed destinations. The platform's keeper pays out the protocol's part automatically. Creator fees wait for the creator: only the creator's wallet can claim them, once a coin's reach 0.01 SOL, from the coin's page or all at once from their profile, and they go to the wallet chosen at launch. Creator fees for holders, a GitHub account, a split or the flywheel move automatically. Creating a launch costs the creation fee plus ~0.02 SOL of account rent.

08

Safety rails

  • Every token starts with exactly 1B. The mint authority is revoked at creation, so the supply can never grow; snipe-tax buybacks only burn.
  • The token has no freeze authority: nobody can lock your tokens.
  • Each launch's own settings (curve, fees, protection, where creator fees go) are frozen into it when it's created; config changes to those only reach future launches.
  • The platform admin can pause new launches and change defaults for future ones, and can't change a live launch's own settings. Platform-wide switches still reach live launches: it can halt buys everywhere through the trade gate (sells stay open), and it names the keys that pay out GitHub fees and holder rewards. Who holds that key is public on the explorer.
  • Graduation is automatic: normally the last buy seeds the pool at the exact final price in the same transaction, and if that step is skipped, anyone can finish it.
  • If it still hasn't moved to Raydium 48 hours after selling out, the launch switches to refunds (the keeper does it; anyone can): each token redeems for an equal share of the SOL in the curve, fee-free.
  • Where creator fees go (a wallet, a GitHub account, a fee split, holders or the flywheel) is fixed at launch and can't be changed by anyone.
  • A dev lock can't be shortened or emptied early: the program only releases what has unlocked, and only to the creator.
09

What it can't do

No on-chain rule can tell which wallets belong to the same person. So, honestly:

  • A patient bundler can still accumulate across many slots and transactions. They pay the opening fee, compete with real buyers in every slot, and leave a public trail. Expensive and visible, not impossible.
  • After launch protection ends, normal trading rules apply to everyone.
  • Launches created outside this site can switch the protections off; those are clearly labelled.
  • The fairness report and the dev record only read the chain. A dev who moves tokens to another wallet before selling isn't counted as selling, and the bundle check only sees direct SOL funding in the hours before launch.
  • The program is upgradeable, so these rules are only as trustworthy as whoever holds the upgrade key. The program's page on the explorer shows who that is.
  • Images are only as permanent as their host. Pinned on IPFS (as this site does) they can't change, because the link is the content's own hash, but they stay online only while someone keeps them pinned. On the app's own server, the operator could swap the file.
  • The program has been tested and reviewed, but not professionally audited yet.
10

FAQ

Can the dev still buy at launch?
Yes, in the same transaction as the launch, but under the same rules: the opening fee and the per-slot cap (1 SOL at the open by default). A scheduled launch is no different: the dev buy goes in with the launch, before the open, at the open's fee and cap, and nobody, the creator included, can buy again until it opens.
Can I schedule a launch?
Yes. On the launch form, pick At a set time and choose when it opens, up to 24 hours ahead. The coin is created right away, with its name, ticker and page, and shows as Scheduled on the board and on its card with a countdown, so people can share it and set a reminder (its page has Add to calendar). Nobody can buy before the open, the creator included: a dev buy can only go in with the launch, at the opening fee and under the first slot's cap, and a dev lock runs from the open. At the open, launch protection starts exactly as it would have at launch. The time can't be changed once it's launched. On most launchpads announcing a launch time only tells the snipers when to show up; here the open's fee and shared cap make it fair for everyone who's there. The fairness report doesn't count a crowd in the first slot against a scheduled launch, since everyone knew when.
Where exactly does the snipe tax go?
All of it buys the token back on its own curve, right after the trade that paid it, and the tokens it buys are burned, so the supply shrinks. If that trade sold the curve out, there's nothing left to buy, so it goes into the Raydium pool at graduation instead. None of it goes to the creator, and none to the platform, with one rare exception: if a single buy sells out a launch whose opening fee is far above the default, the pool may not be able to pair all of that SOL at the final price, and what it can't pair goes to the platform rather than distorting the price.
Why do prices show “per 1M tokens”?
A single token costs fractions of a millionth of a SOL. Every launch opens at 0.02 SOL per 1M, which is easier to read than 0.00000002.
When does a token move to Raydium?
Automatically, the moment it sells out. The buy that completes the curve opens the Raydium pool in the same transaction, so there's nothing to press, and the keeper locks its liquidity for good seconds later. If a buy from another app completes it without opening the pool, the keeper finishes the job within seconds (and anyone else can too). The pool lives at an address only the launchpad's program can create, so nobody can take it first. If a token still hasn't moved 48 hours after selling out, it switches to refunds (the keeper does it; anyone can).
What do Boarding, On sale and Migrated mean?
The departures board's words for a coin's stages. Boarding: its launch protection is on (a high, decaying fee and buy caps), with a countdown. On sale: normal trading on the bonding curve. Migrating, then Migrated: the curve sold out and the coin moved to a Raydium pool with locked liquidity. Refunds: it sold out but couldn't move to Raydium within 48 hours, so each token redeems for an equal share of the SOL in the curve, fee-free. A coin whose protection is off, or lasts less than a minute, is marked No protection everywhere it appears.
What are holder rewards?
Some coins send their creator fee to holders instead of the creator, chosen once at launch. On those, the creator fee on every trade (and the creator's half of the pool's fees after graduation) builds up a pool that's paid out about every 10 minutes to every wallet holding the coin, in proportion to its balance. Each payout starts from a snapshot of balances, and you're paid on the smaller of your balance at the snapshot and your balance when your payment goes out. So tokens bought after a snapshot count from the next payout, and moving tokens to another wallet mid-payout doesn't get them paid twice. Tokens still in the curve or the Raydium pool don't count. The program caps every payment at what the wallet really holds and pays each wallet at most once per payout. Look for the Rewards badge.
What are platform rewards?
Every day, part of the platform's fees goes back to the people who use it. Two fifths of the platform's share of fees fills the rewards wallet: referrers are paid from it first, and the rest goes half to the top 100 traders by volume, half to the top 10 developers by the trading fees their coins generated, each in proportion. It's paid automatically in SOL just after midnight UTC. See the live leaderboards and your reward so far on the Rewards page.
How do referral links work?
Your link is on the Referrals page, where you can give it a code of your own, like ?ref=moonboy, once your wallet has traded at least 0.1 SOL on Velos (it can't look like anyone else's name or code, or contain words like velos, admin or support, and it stays yours). Anyone who follows it and then makes their first trade on Velos is linked to you for good (the trade carries a short note naming you, which they sign with it), and you earn 20% of the platform's fee on every bonding-curve trade they make after that, from any app: 0.1% of their volume. It comes out of the platform's share, never theirs, and it's paid in SOL every day with the platform rewards. The first link someone follows counts, and you can't refer yourself.
Can I comment on a coin?
Yes, at the bottom of every coin's page. Anyone can read the comments; to post, you sign in to Velos once (see below). Each comment shows the wallet's name and address, and whether it created the coin or holds it. You can reply to a comment, like other people's, delete your own and report anyone else's. Links in comments aren't clickable. The launches list can sort by Most discussed: the coins the most wallets commented on today.
Are prices in dollars or SOL?
Market caps, and a profile's holdings and profit or loss, show in US dollars by default, at the SOL/USD price from Pyth; the USD / SOL button at the top switches them to SOL, and your choice stays in this browser. Charts in dollars convert each candle at the SOL price of its own time. What you pay and get (trades, fees, rewards) is always in SOL, since that's what moves.
Why do I sign in, and what can it do?
Messages, comments, likes, your profile and your referral link codes need to know the wallet is really yours, so the first time you use one of them your wallet asks you to sign a short message. That signs you in on that device for 60 days, for all of them. It's free, sends no transaction and can't move your funds: every buy, sell, launch or claim still asks your wallet to approve it, every time. It's the wallets' standard Sign In With Solana, so your wallet checks that it's really this site asking. Sign out from the menu under your wallet button (or on the messages page): that signs you out on every device.
Is there a chat for a coin's holders?
Yes: every coin has a holders' group. Anyone holding at least 0.01 SOL of the coin is in, and so is its creator; open it from the Holders' group card on the coin's page, or under Groups on Messages. Only members can read and write there, and selling below the minimum takes you out. You can delete your own messages and report anyone else's; the coin's creator runs the group, and can pin an announcement and remove messages.
Can I message other people on Velos?
Yes: press Message on anyone's profile, or open Messages. You sign in to Velos once (a free signature, no transaction). A first message from a wallet you've never written to lands in your requests, and it can send 3 until you reply; you can block a wallet or report a message at any time. Messages are kept on Velos's server and aren't end-to-end encrypted. Velos never messages you first and never asks for your seed phrase.
How does a creator get paid?
A coin's creator fee builds up inside it, for whoever the creator chose at launch. Paid to a wallet, it's claimed by that wallet from the coin's page, or for all its coins at once with Claim all on its profile, once a coin has at least 0.01 SOL waiting (the network fee is tiny). The menu under your wallet button shows how much is waiting. Holder rewards, fee splits, GitHub accounts and the flywheel are paid out on their own, as described above.
Can a launch pay a GitHub developer?
Yes. When launching, a creator can send the creator fees to a GitHub account instead of a wallet, for example to fund the developer of the project the coin is about. The fees build up in a vault tied to that account's numeric GitHub id, so renaming the account doesn't lose them. The developer claims them by signing in with GitHub on the claim page, once the vault holds 0.01 SOL; their wallet pays the tiny network fee. The chain can't check GitHub itself, so the platform's claim key pays out the vault once GitHub confirms who signed in: this option relies on the platform. Organizations can't sign in, so only a person's account can be chosen.
What's the fairness report?
A grade from A to F on every token page, built only from on-chain data. It looks at how the opening went: whether launch protection was on, how many wallets bought the opening and the largest one's share, how many wallets landed in the very first slot (a common sign of a bundle), and how much snipe tax early buyers paid. It also looks at what the dev bought, sold and locked, and how much the top 10 holders own. On the app's own node it also runs a bundle check: it traces how the opening buyers were funded just before launch and flags groups funded from the same wallet, or by the creator. Exchange wallets fund everyone, so very busy funders are left out. The grade is final for the opening once launch protection ends, but keeps tracking the dev and the holders. From then on it's stamped on the coin's card too, and Clean opens on the launches page shows only coins graded A or B.
What's the opening replay?
Every token page has a replay of its opening, slot by slot, once the opening is over: each slot's buys as a bar against the per-slot cap all buyers share (yellow when a slot's cap was full), sells below the line, and the fee stepping down underneath. Press play to watch the whole opening in about half a minute, or drag across it to stop at any moment and see the fee, the cap, what had been bought and by how many wallets, the snipe tax paid and the tokens it burned, the market cap, and the latest slots with their biggest buyers (the dev's buys are marked). Copy link shares it: the link opens the coin and plays it. A launch without protection replays its first minute.
What's the dev line on a card?
Every card says what its creator did with their other coins on Velos: how many there are, how many reached Raydium, their average fairness grade, and on how many of those with a dev buy the creator's wallet sold more than half of it within an hour of launch (“sold early”). It turns red when that happened on at least half of them, and a creator's first coin says so. The Creator box on the coin's page shows the same. Only the creator's wallet is seen: tokens it moved to another wallet and sold there don't count.
What are linked wallets?
A creator with a bad record could launch again from a brand-new wallet, so Velos traces where each creator's wallet got its SOL before its first launch, from the public transaction history. Two creators are linked when one sent the other SOL, or when the same wallet funded both; the card then adds a line like “1 linked wallet: 3 coins · sold early on 2 of 3” (in red when it's at least half), and the coin's Creator box and the profile list each linked wallet, how it's linked and its record. Only direct transfers count, not what programs pay out; busy wallets such as an exchange's, which fund everyone, and Velos's own wallets (which pay the daily rewards) are left out. It shows where the money came from, not that two wallets belong to the same person.
What's the dev-sell alarm?
When a coin's creator sells at least a fifth of the coin their wallet holds, and at least 0.1% of the supply, in one sell on the bonding curve, everyone hears at once: a red banner on the coin's page (with the share, the tokens and SOL, what their wallet still holds, and the transaction), a Dev sold mark on its card for a day, and a post from Velos in the coin's holders' group, which the creator can't remove. Only the creator's own wallet is watched, as in the fairness report: tokens moved to another wallet and sold there, or sold on the Raydium pool after graduation, don't sound it.
Can I gift a coin to someone?
Yes. On a coin's page, Gift makes a link: Buy as a gift spends SOL on the coin (once its launch protection is over), or From what I hold sends some of yours (any time). The coin waits in a new wallet made for the gift, with about 0.005 SOL for its claim, and the link carries that wallet's key after its # sign, which never reaches our server. Whoever opens the link claims it to their wallet, or to an address they paste, with no SOL of their own: the gift pays the fee, and what's left of its SOL goes to them. Anyone with the link can claim it, like a gift card, so send it only to the person it's for. Your browser keeps the links you made, so you can copy them again or take back a gift nobody has claimed.
Can I follow a creator?
Yes. Press Follow on a creator's profile or on the Creator box of their coin's page, and allow notifications: this device then gets a notification when they launch or schedule a coin, and a minute before a scheduled one opens. It needs no sign-in and no app; your browser's own push service delivers it, encrypted for your browser. On an iPhone or iPad, add Velos to your Home Screen first (Share, then Add to Home Screen) and follow from there. Unfollow the same way, or turn notifications off in your browser.
What does "Dev locked" mean?
The creator chose to lock their dev buy when launching: the tokens went straight from their buy into a vault the program controls, and unlock evenly over the time they picked (1 day to a year in the app). Only the creator can claim what has unlocked, nobody can take the rest out early, and the lock can't be shortened. The token page shows how much is locked and when it's fully unlocked, and the creator's profile shows what they did on their other launches.
What's on a profile?
Every wallet has a page on the site, linked wherever the wallet appears: what it holds, its recent trades, what Velos has paid it, and every coin it launched, with its status, market cap and fairness grade and what the creator bought and still holds of it (a dev lock counts as held). A summary shows how many of its launches graduated or fell back to refunds, the average grade, and on how many the creator sold more than half of their dev buy. A wallet can add a name and a short bio once it's signed in to Velos, which is one free signature with no transaction, and link its X account by proving it: it posts a short code from that account and pastes the post's link, and the profile then shows the handle with a verified tick (the post can be deleted afterwards). A handle can't simply be typed in, so a profile can't show someone else's X account, and one X account belongs to one wallet at a time. Names are first come, first served, and the short wallet address always shows beside a name, so a look-alike name can't pass as someone else; names (and X handles) can't contain velos, admin, support, official or the names of wallets and apps people trust, in any spelling. In dollars or SOL, as you choose, it shows the value of what the wallet holds and its profit or loss.
What's a flywheel launch?
A coin whose creator chose, at launch, to turn the creator fee into buybacks instead of income. Every few minutes (10 by default) the creator fee collected since the last round buys the coin back and burns it: on the bonding curve, which also moves the coin toward graduation, and after graduation on its Raydium pool, with the creator's share of the pool's trading fees. A round spends at most 0.5% of the SOL it buys against, so it moves the price by about 1%, less than the 2% in fees a sandwich around it would cost; anything over that waits for the next round. Rounds run on their own: on the curve, a due round runs inside the next buy or sell, right after that trade's fill; after graduation the platform's keeper runs them. If a coin falls back to refunds, its unspent flywheel fees go to the refunds. Look for the Flywheel badge.
Can creator fees be split between several people?
Yes. At launch a creator can split the creator fee between 2 to 10 recipients, each a wallet or a GitHub account, in fixed percentages that add up to 100%. The split is set on-chain and can't be changed afterwards, by the creator or anyone. Collected fees go into the launch's split account, and anyone can trigger the payout, which sends each recipient its share. A share too small to open an empty wallet (below Solana's rent minimum) isn't lost: it stays owed to that recipient and is paid once it's big enough. A GitHub recipient's share builds up in its fee vault until its owner claims it.
What's king of the hill?
The protected launch with the highest market cap among those that have raised at least 50% of their graduation target. It's featured at the top of the home page until it graduates or another launch overtakes it, and every token page shows how far that token is from the crown. It's a ranking on this site, not an on-chain rule: it doesn't change fees or limits. Launches without protection can't take the hill, so the spotlight never rewards a launch that could have been bundled.
Why does the code say “handshake”?
That's the program's internal name for launch protection, so you'll see it in account fields and events (inHandshake, handshakeTax).

Ready when you are

Launch with protection on by default, or find a token that just opened.