Graduation

When a Pons curve accumulates enough real quote asset, the launch graduates: liquidity moves out of the bonding curve and into a canonical Uniswap v4 pool.

The threshold

In the live configuration observed:

quoteReserve includes the phantom seed, so the real progress is the difference. The status page computes it that way.

What happens mechanically

1. The curve reaches the threshold; readyToGraduate() becomes true.
2. Graduation is executed through the Pons graduationExecutor, guarded by the graduationGuard.
3. Liquidity is swept out of the curve — the launch enters phase Swept (1).
4. A Uniswap v4 pool is created and seeded. The launch enters PoolCreated (2).
5. A portion of supply is permanently locked into the Pons locker, emitting GraduationTokensPermanentlyLocked.

Why buybacks pause

During phase 1 there is no venue that can be traded safely. Curve liquidity has left; pool liquidity may not yet exist. The executor refuses:

revert UnexpectedPhase(phase);

The buyback budget is untouched and continues to accumulate. Once phase 2 is reached, the keeper resumes and can spend the accumulated budget across several bounded executions.

Effect on supply accounting

Graduation permanently locks tokens into Pons infrastructure. Those tokens are not circulating in any meaningful sense, but they are not at the dead address either — so estimatedCirculatingSupply cannot subtract them.

This is one of the reasons that figure is labelled an estimate, and why the true free float is lower than reported. See supply accounting.

Effect on fees

Post-graduation, fees accrue on the Pons meme hook rather than the curve. Converting hook fees to ETH may require the Pons feeSweepOperator to act — a dependency Plouto cannot remove. See sweeps.

The claim mechanism is unchanged: fees still land in the same Fee Escrow, and the Revenue Router still pulls them the same way.

Rescued graduations

Phase 3, Rescued, is a graduation that could not complete normally and was recovered through rescueSweptGraduation. Plouto treats it exactly like phase 1 — no tradeable route, revert rather than improvise.