For Traders Guide

How game tokens work, bonding curve mechanics, and what drives price. Everything you need to evaluate a game token.

Overview

Every game on GameMint has its own ERC-20 token with a fixed supply of 1,000,000. These tokens are traded on an automated bonding curve — no order books, no liquidity providers, no exchanges.

The key mechanic: when someone buys the game, the creator gets paid instantly in USDC. The remaining portion market-buys tokens on the bonding curve (pushing the price up), then burns those tokens (permanently reducing supply). Two forces in one transaction: demand pressure + supply reduction.

The Vending Machine Analogy

Think of the bonding curve as a vending machine stocked with 950,000 tokens. You put GM in, tokens come out. You can return tokens and get GM back. But when someone buys the game, tokens get taken out of the machine and destroyed. The machine has less inventory, so each remaining token costs more.

Fixed Supply

All 1,000,000 tokens are minted when a game is created. No more can ever be minted.

Total supply at creation (hard cap)

50K

Developer allocation (5%)

950K

Bonding curve reserve (95%)

The developer receives 5% immediately at creation. The remaining 95% are held by the bonding curve contract as inventory for trading.

Supply Only Goes Down

Regular trading (buying and selling tokens) does not change the total supply. Tokens just move between the contract and wallets. The only thing that reduces supply is content purchase burns — when someone buys the game.

Game created: totalSupply = 1,000,000 After 1,000 game sales: totalSupply = ~997,000 (tokens burned) After 10,000 game sales: totalSupply = ~970,000 (more tokens burned) After trading: totalSupply = unchanged (trading doesn't burn)

You can verify the current supply on-chain by calling totalSupply() on the game's token contract. It is a transparent, public number.

Bonding Curve

Game tokens are traded on a constant-product automated market maker (AMM) — the same mathematical model used by Uniswap V2.

The Formula

Operation	Formula
Spot price	`reserveGM / tokenBalance`
Buy tokens	`tokensOut = tokenBalance * gmIn / (reserveGM + gmIn)`
Sell tokens	`gmOut = reserveGM * tokensIn / (tokenBalance + tokensIn)`
Invariant	`reserveGM * tokenBalance = k`

Where tokenBalance is the contract's actual ERC-20 balance of the game token, and reserveGM is the GM locked in the curve.

Properties

Instant trades — no counterparty needed, the curve is always available
Price increases with demand — each successive buy costs more
Price decreases with supply — each successive sell returns less
Can never be fully drained — the curve always has some tokens (price approaches infinity asymptotically)
Slippage protection — every trade requires a minOut parameter

Initial State

When a game is created, the $10 creation fee is swapped to GM and deposited into the curve. This GM becomes the starting reserve. With 950K tokens in the curve and a small amount of GM, the initial price is very low — early buyers get tokens cheaply.

What Drives Price

There are two distinct forces that affect the token price:

1. Trading (temporary)

Buying tokens removes them from the curve and adds GM. Selling returns tokens and removes GM. This is reversible — it changes the price but doesn't change the total supply. If everyone sells, the price goes back to where it started.

2. Content Purchase Burns (permanent)

When someone buys the game, the creator gets paid instantly in USDC. The remainder market-buys tokens on the curve (adding GM to the reserve, removing tokens) and then burns those tokens (permanently destroying them). This is irreversible and pushes price up in two ways:

More GM in the reserve from the market buy (numerator goes up)
Fewer tokens in existence from the burn (denominator goes down)

The Key Insight

Trading is noise. Burns are signal. A game with 10,000 sales has a fundamentally smaller supply than a game with 100 sales. Look at totalSupply to gauge a game's real traction — it can't be faked.

What to Look For

Metric	What It Tells You
`totalSupply`	How many tokens still exist. Lower = more games sold (real traction).
`reserveGM`	GM locked in the curve. Higher = deeper liquidity.
Creator share %	How much goes to creator vs. burn. Lower share = more burn per sale.
Game price	Higher price = more GM per burn (bigger price impact per sale).
Player count / comments	Social proof. Active players leaving feedback = game is alive.
Feedback tier distribution	Who's commenting — Whales and Dolphins giving feedback means serious holders are engaged and directing improvements.

Token holders shape the game

Only game owners and token holders can leave feedback. The AI agent prioritizes feedback by token holdings — Whales (50K+) and Mega Whales (100K+) have the most influence over the game's direction. This creates a direct link between holding tokens and shaping the product that drives token value. Tiers: Player (0), Shrimp (1-4,999), Fish (5K-9,999), Dolphin (10K-49,999), Whale (50K-99,999), Mega Whale (100K+).

Content Purchase Burns

This is the core mechanic. Here's exactly what happens on-chain when someone buys a game:

Player pays $5 USDC for game access (creator share: 70%) 1. $3.50 → Paid instantly to the creator's wallet (USDC, no waiting) 2. $1.50 → Swapped to GM via Uniswap 3. GM market-buys game tokens on the bonding curve → This pushes the token price up (more GM in reserve, fewer tokens available) 4. Those bought tokens are then burned (permanently destroyed) → totalSupply decreases, making remaining tokens scarcer Two price impacts in one transaction: • The market buy increases reserveGM and decreases curve inventory • The burn permanently removes tokens from existence

Burn Impact Calculator

The impact of each burn depends on the game price and creator share:

Game Price	Creator Share	Amount Burned (per sale)
$1	70%	$0.30 worth of tokens
$5	70%	$1.50 worth of tokens
$10	50%	$5.00 worth of tokens
$10	90%	$1.00 worth of tokens

Games with lower creator share burn more per sale (more goes to the curve). Games with higher price burn more in absolute terms. A $10 game at 50% creator share burns 16x more per sale than a $1 game at 70%.

How to Trade

Buying Tokens

You need GM tokens (the platform token) to buy game tokens
Go to a game's page and click "Trade"
Enter the amount of GM you want to spend
The UI shows you how many tokens you'll receive (with slippage estimate)
Confirm the transaction in your wallet
Tokens appear in your wallet immediately

Selling Tokens

Go to the game's page, click "Trade", switch to "Sell"
Enter the amount of game tokens to sell
The UI shows how much GM you'll receive
Confirm the transaction
GM appears in your wallet, tokens go back to the curve

Slippage

Large trades relative to the curve's liquidity will have significant price impact. The UI shows the expected slippage before you confirm. You can set a maximum slippage tolerance — if the price moves beyond it, the transaction reverts.

Fees

Fee	Amount	Recipient
Trade fee (buy or sell)	1%	GameMint treasury (platform revenue)
Game creation fee	$10 USDC	100% seeds the bonding curve
Gas fees	Variable (typically < $0.01)	Base network validators

The 1% trade fee is deducted before the curve calculation. If you spend 100 GM buying tokens, 1 GM goes to the treasury and 99 GM goes into the curve.

Reading Market Data

Each game page shows market data. Here's what the numbers mean:

Field	Meaning
Price	Current spot price from the bonding curve (in GM)
Market Cap	Price × totalSupply (total theoretical value)
Total Supply	Tokens still in existence. Starts at 1M, decreases with burns.
GM Reserve	GM locked in the bonding curve. This is the curve's liquidity.
24h Volume	Total GM traded in the last 24 hours
Holders	Number of wallets holding this game's token
Creator Share	% of each game purchase that goes to the creator (rest is burned)

totalSupply is the strongest signal

Market cap can be inflated by low-liquidity pumps. Trading volume can be wash-traded. But totalSupply only goes down when real game purchases happen. A game at 970K supply has had more real sales than a game at 995K supply. It's the hardest metric to fake.

Risks

Game tokens are speculative. Understand these risks before trading:

Price can go to near-zero. If no one buys the game and holders sell, the price drops. The bonding curve guarantees you can always sell, but possibly at a big loss.
Developer holds 5%. The game creator has 50K tokens from creation. If they sell their full allocation, it puts downward pressure on the price. Watch the dev's wallet.
Low liquidity early on. New games start with minimal GM in the curve (just the $10 creation fee). Large buys or sells will have extreme slippage.
Creator share matters. A game with 90% creator share only burns 10% of each purchase. A game with 50% creator share burns 50%. Higher burn = more price support per sale.
Game quality risk. If the game is bad, no one buys it, no tokens get burned, no price support. The token's value is directly tied to the game's commercial success.
Smart contract risk. The bonding curve and token contracts are on-chain. While audited, bugs are always possible in smart contracts.

Not Financial Advice

Game tokens are speculative digital assets. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. Past burns do not guarantee future sales. Always do your own research.