Catalyst

What is Catalyst

Catalyst is a non-custodial launchpad protocol for autonomous on-chain startups, built on Uniswap v4. It connects founders who need operational funding with investors who want early-stage token exposure — without either party giving up custody of their capital, and with an on-chain adoption oracle that separates real traction from wash trading.

The problem

Early-stage crypto projects face a brutal dilemma. Founders need predictable operational capital to build, but the two funding models available today are both broken. Traditional VC rounds require equity, long due diligence cycles, and legal structures that most teams can't afford. Token launches expose investors to pump-and-dump dynamics, where price action is driven by wash trading and the project dies the moment the founder stops pumping.

Investors, on the other hand, are asked to choose between safety and upside. Stablecoin yield is safe but gives no exposure to the underlying project. Token speculation gives exposure but no protection if the project fails or if the “traction” turns out to be manufactured.

Catalyst is built around the observation that these two problems share a solution: if investor capital stays as liquidity in a stable pair, and the fees from that pair fund the founder, then neither side has to give anything up. The capital is always there. The founder gets ongoing income. And the token lives in a second pool that enables real price discovery, not a launch pad fireworks show.

The core idea

Every Catalyst startup has two Uniswap v4 pools working together:

  • Pool 1A stable/stable pool (USDx/USDy). Investors provide liquidity here. Because both sides are stablecoins, impermanent loss is effectively zero — the principal stays intact. Every swap through this pool generates fees, and those fees are the actual funding mechanism.
  • Pool 2A USDx/TOKEN pool for price discovery. The startup's token only trades here. A portion of Pool 1's fees automatically buys the token in this pool, creating constant buy pressure that rewards early investors.

✅Non-custodial by design

At no point does anyone — the protocol, the founder, or a third party — take custody of investor funds. Capital stays in Uniswap v4 pools at all times, held by the immutable PoolManager contract.

What makes Catalyst different

  • Founder skin in the game via collateral. Every founder has to post ETH collateral when registering. That collateral is locked through ERC-8210 JobAssurance and slashable if the startup fails its commitment. It aligns incentives before a single dollar of investor capital is committed.
  • An adoption oracle that catches fake traction. The CatalystAdoptionScorer is an on-chain contract fed by an off-chain daemon that reads real metrics — unique holders, swapper diversity, wash trading ratio, 7-day retention — and publishes a signed verdict. The performance evaluator uses that verdict to decide if an apparent price gain should count as success. Deep dive →
  • Two-pool architecture with automatic buyback. Thirty percent of the fees from Pool 1 are automatically swapped for the startup's token in Pool 2, creating constant buy pressure that benefits every investor — not just the ones who time it perfectly.
  • Standards-based. Built on ERC-8183 (Agentic Commerce) and ERC-8210 (Agent Assurance). Jobs, escrow, collateral and claims follow open standards co-designed by our team, not a proprietary protocol.

The lifecycle in one picture

1. Founder registers startup → ERC-20 token is created, collateral is locked

2. Investors deposit stables into Pool 1 (USDx/USDy)

3. Pool 1 fees accrue → 70% founder ops, 30% buyback in Pool 2

4. Oracle daemon monitors adoption metrics, posts verdicts on-chain

5. At commitment deadline, PerformanceEvaluator reads price + verdict

→ Target met AND verdict = APPROVE: founder recovers collateral, investors keep appreciated tokens

→ Target missed OR verdict = DENY: investors can file a claim against the founder's collateral

For a detailed walkthrough of each step see How it works.

Who is Catalyst for

  • FoundersTeams building crypto-native products who want predictable operational income without giving up equity or custody. Founder guide →
  • InvestorsCapital allocators looking for early-stage token exposure with principal protection and a claim against founder collateral if things go wrong. Investor guide →
  • AI agentsAutonomous agents that want to participate via the MCP integration, either as founders running a startup strategy or as investors scanning opportunities. MCP docs →

Where to go next

  • How it works — the lifecycle in detail, from registration to settlement
  • Roles — founder, investor, oracle, admin, evaluator: who can do what
  • Adoption oracle — how real traction is measured and published on-chain
  • Architecture — on-chain contracts and off-chain services, end to end
  • Tokenomics — token distribution, fee routing, buyback flywheel
  • Pools — Pool 1 vs Pool 2, valuation, hook logic

Looking for Lockstep instead? Visit Lockstep docs ↗