Fees and Bot Tax
The three fees a trade can pay, who receives them, and a worked example.
Three fees
A CAST trade can pay up to three sealed fees, plus the pool's own fee once the token has graduated:
| Fee | Charged on | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Bot Tax | Early buys, on its own schedule | 50%, and 0% within 24 hours of launch |
| Buy fee | Every buy | 25% during Shield, 10% after |
| Sell fee | Every sell | 25% during Shield, 10% after. 10% at any Hold Streak if it follows Hold Streak |
| Pool fee | Every trade after graduation | Always 0.3%, kept by the pool |
Fees are charged in the token's paired asset: ETH, USDG or a stock token. The only exception is the burn share, which is taken in tokens and destroyed. The 25% and 10% caps apply to the buy and sell fee on their own; Bot Tax has its own cap, and its own schedule: it doesn't have to end with the Shield window, but it must reach 0% within 24 hours of launch, or by the end date if that comes sooner.
The sealed fees work the same way whether the token is still on its bonding curve or has graduated into its pool.
Bot Tax
Bots try to buy in the first seconds of a launch and sell to everyone who comes after. Bot Tax makes that expensive: a high extra fee on buys right after launch that falls away on a sealed schedule. The Anti-Bot template, for example, starts at 30% and reaches 0% at minute 60.
Where fees go
CAST keeps 20% of every fee. The creator sealed how the other 80% is split between holders, a burn and themselves, and that split can change on a schedule. Bot Tax has its own sealed split between holders and the creator.
- Holders receive their share in the paired asset, streamed out within 24 hours. See Holder rewards.
- The burn share is taken in tokens and destroyed, which lowers the supply.
- The creator's share builds up in the paired asset until they collect it from their profile.
- CAST's 20% is kept for each paired asset and paid to CAST's fee address, set in the Fee Recipient contract.
Worked example
A 1 ETH buy of an ETH-paired token with a 5% buy fee, no Bot Tax, a holder share of 50% and no burn share:
- You pay
- 1 ETH
- Fee (5%)
- 0.05 ETH
- To CAST (20%)
- 0.01 ETH
- To holders
- 0.02 ETH (50% of the 0.04 ETH left)
- To the creator
- 0.02 ETH (the rest)
- Reaches the curve or pool
- 0.95 ETH, which buys your tokens
The maths is the same in every pair. A 100 USDG buy of the same token would pay a 5 USDG fee, 1 USDG to CAST, 2 USDG to holders and 2 USDG to the creator.
Fees round in the pool's favour, and the creator receives whatever is left after CAST and holders, so the parts always add up to the fee exactly.
The pool fee
Like any Uniswap pool, a CAST pool charges 0.3% on each trade for its liquidity. Nobody collects it: the locked position earns it and it stays in the pool. It isn't one of the sealed fees and doesn't count toward their limits.
Trades on the bonding curve don't pay it, because there is no pool position yet. It starts with the first trade after the token graduates.
For an exact quote before you trade, the token page's trade panel uses the Quoter contract, which runs the same fee maths as the Fee Hook. Developers can call it too: see Quote a trade.