How runes.cash works
runes.cash launches Pump.fun coins paired with Bitcoin. Every trade pays a creator fee in BTC, all of it goes to the people holding the coin, and every coin that graduates is inscribed on Bitcoin forever.
Overview#
Every coin trades against Bitcoin (WBTC) on Pump.fun, so prices are in sats.
A 1% creator fee in BTC on every trade. 100% of it is split across holders.
When the bonding curve completes, the coin is inscribed on Bitcoin as an Ordinal.
Quickstart#
- Open the launch form. Go to Launch a coin and connect a Solana wallet.
- Describe the coin. Upload a square image (PNG, JPG, WEBP or GIF, up to 5 MB), then add a name, ticker, description and an optional X link.
- Choose a dev buy. The SOL you want to spend buying your own coin at launch. It is swapped to BTC first. 0 is fine.
- Approve once. Your wallet signs everything in one approval. The coin is live on Pump.fun within seconds.
- Hold and earn. Holders of any coin here earn its trading fees in BTC. Claim them on the Rewards page.
Paired with Bitcoin#
Pump.fun lets a coin trade against tokens other than SOL. On runes.cash every coin is created with WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin on Solana, 8 decimals, so 1 unit = 1 sat) as its pair. Buyers pay in BTC, sellers receive BTC, and the price is quoted in sats.
Trading happens on Solana, so it settles in about a second. When the bonding curve completes, the coin migrates to a PumpSwap pool, still paired with BTC.
What you sign
You pay in SOL. With a dev buy, your wallet approves two transactions at once:
- Swap. Your SOL is swapped to WBTC through Jupiter.
- Create and buy. The coin is created on Pump.fun paired with WBTC, and your dev buy spends the WBTC from the swap.
Without a dev buy there is only the create transaction. Either way the coin's mint, freeze and metadata are fixed by Pump.fun.
Fees to holders#
Every trade on a runes.cash coin pays a 1% creator fee in BTC, on top of Pump.fun's own protocol fee. Normally the creator keeps it. Here, 100% of it goes to holders.
The fee vault
Each coin gets its own creator key, so its fees collect in a fee vault that belongs to that coin alone. You can see any coin's vault on its page (the Bitcoin panel links it on Solscan).
Every few minutes a keeper sweeps each vault and credits the BTC to holders. Each sweep is a Solana transaction, and the coin page shows the latest one.
How it is split
- Each sweep is split across holders in proportion to their balance at that moment.
- A wallet needs at least 100,000 tokens (0.01% of supply) to count.
- Program accounts are left out: the bonding curve, the PumpSwap pool and other vaults. So are the runes.cash launcher and the coin's own creator key.
- Credits are kept in sats and add up across every coin you hold. They never expire.
Claiming BTC#
On the Rewards page, connect the Solana wallet that holds your coins. You see what you have earned per coin and what is claimable.
- Enter a Bitcoin address. Any mainnet address works:
bc1q…,bc1p…,3…or1…. - Sign a message. Your Solana wallet signs a message naming that address. No transaction, no gas.
- Receive native BTC. Your WBTC credit is swapped to USDC on Solana, then NEAR Intents delivers native BTC to your address. It usually takes about 8 minutes.
Claims start at 15,000 sats, because the bridge to Bitcoin has a minimum of about $7 and fees should stay small. Swap and bridge costs come out of the amount. As an example, a 20,000 sat claim delivered about 18,000 sats. The Rewards page shows an estimate before you claim.
Claim statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Queued | The claim is open; your balance is reserved for it. |
| Swapping to USDC | Your WBTC is being swapped to USDC on Solana. |
| Opening intent | A NEAR Intents quote is being opened to your Bitcoin address. |
| Bridging to Bitcoin | The USDC is deposited; solvers are delivering BTC. |
| Paid | BTC arrived. The claim links the Bitcoin transaction on mempool.space. |
| Returned to balance | The bridge couldn't deliver. Your credit is back and you can claim again. |
| Failed | The swap kept failing. Your credit is back. |
Inscribed on Bitcoin#
When a coin completes its bonding curve, runes.cash inscribes it on Bitcoin as an Ordinal. The inscription is a card with the coin's logo, name, ticker, mint address and graduation date, written into the Bitcoin blockchain for as long as Bitcoin runs.
The coin page tracks the inscription step by step. Once it is confirmed, it links the inscription on ordinals.com and the transaction on mempool.space.
Commit and reveal
- Card built. The card is rendered as an SVG (about 13 KB) and committed to a one-time Bitcoin address.
- Funded through NEAR Intents. runes.cash pays exactly the sats the inscription needs into that address, bridged straight from Solana.
- Reveal. A reveal transaction writes the card into Bitcoin and sends the inscription to the runes.cash Ordinals address.
- Inscribed. Once the reveal confirms in a block, the coin is on Bitcoin for good.
Bonding curve#
Every coin starts on a Pump.fun bonding curve: the price rises as supply is bought. When the curve sells out, the coin graduates to a PumpSwap pool, and that is when it is inscribed. Coin pages show curve progress live.
Costs & fees#
| What | Cost | Paid by |
|---|---|---|
| Launch (rent and network fees) | ≈ 0.025 SOL | Launcher |
| Dev buy | Your choice, swapped to BTC | Launcher |
| Creator fee per trade | 1%, in BTC | Traders, 100% to holders |
| Pump.fun protocol fee | Pump.fun's standard rate | Traders |
| Claiming BTC | Swap + bridge, about 10% on a 20,000 sat claim | Comes out of the claim |
| Inscription at graduation | Bitcoin network fees | runes.cash |
| Collecting fee vaults | Solana gas | runes.cash |
Trust & safety#
- Pump.fun is the market. Coins, curves and pools are Pump.fun's own programs. runes.cash never holds your coins.
- Fee vaults are per coin. Each coin's creator key is held by runes.cash so the keeper can sweep it. Every sweep is a public Solana transaction.
- Credits are accounted in a ledger. Swept BTC waits in the runes.cash rewards vault until you claim. Your balance is visible on the Rewards page at any time.
- Claims are signed. Only the wallet that earned a balance can claim it, by signing a message. A failed or refunded claim puts the balance back.
- Inscriptions are verifiable. Every inscription links to ordinals.com and mempool.space.
FAQ#
Do I need Bitcoin to launch?
No. You pay in SOL from your Solana wallet. A dev buy is swapped to BTC for you.
Does the creator get the fees?
No. 100% of the creator fee goes to holders. Creators earn as holders, through their dev buy.
Is it real Bitcoin?
Coins trade against WBTC on Solana. When you claim, you receive native BTC on the Bitcoin network.
How often are fees paid out?
The keeper sweeps every coin's fee vault every few minutes and credits holders right away.
Why is there a minimum claim?
The bridge to Bitcoin needs about $7, and smaller claims would lose too much to fees.
What gets inscribed?
A card with the coin's logo, name, ticker, mint and graduation date, as an SVG Ordinal.
Who owns the inscription?
It is sent to the runes.cash Ordinals address, and anyone can view it on ordinals.com.
What about coins launched before Bitcoin pairing?
Older coins stay paired with SOL. Fees to holders and inscriptions apply to Bitcoin-paired coins.
Glossary#
- WBTC
- Wrapped Bitcoin on Solana. Every coin here is paired with it; 1 unit is 1 sat.
- Sat
- One hundred-millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC).
- Creator fee
- The share of every trade Pump.fun pays to a coin's creator. Here it goes to holders.
- Fee vault
- Where a coin's creator fees collect before the keeper sweeps them.
- Keeper
- The runes.cash job that sweeps fee vaults, credits holders, and runs claims and inscriptions.
- NEAR Intents
- The cross-chain network that delivers native BTC for claims and inscriptions.
- Ordinal
- Data inscribed onto an individual satoshi on Bitcoin, viewable on ordinals.com.
- Graduation
- When the bonding curve sells out and the coin moves to a PumpSwap pool.
Paired with Bitcoin. Fees to holders. Inscribed when it graduates.