Buy your first Koine coin

This page walks through buying a coin on Koine, selling it, and getting your SOL back out. Memecoins can go to zero. Only put in what you can lose.

Press Sign in at the top of any koine.markets page. Sign in with your email (Koine's sign-in partner, Privy, sends you a one-time code), a passkey (Face ID, a fingerprint or a security key), or a Solana wallet such as Phantom. A wallet you sign in with only proves who you are. It is never asked to pay or to sign anything else.

The first time, you read a short notice and press I understand, create my account. That accepts Koine's terms and makes your account.

There is no account recovery. Your email, passkey or sign-in wallet is the only way in. Save a withdrawal address early (step 11), so a browser that's still signed in can always send your SOL home.

Source: app/web/src/account.tsx (SignInHost), trade/server/web.ts (/web/privy/login), trade/server/users.ts (WEB_TERMS, joinWithPrivy)

2. Your Koine wallet #

When you make your account, Koine makes you a Koine wallet: a Solana wallet that Koine keeps at Privy, a wallet company. If it isn't made, press Create my wallet.

It's the only wallet the site uses. Every buy, sell and presale deposit comes from it, with no popup to approve. Its signing rules let it trade, pay Koine's fee, take part in presales, and send SOL only to the one address you save. You can export its private key whenever you like (step 11).

Source: app/web/src/account.tsx (CreateWallet), trade/server/users.ts (ensureWallet), trade/server/policy.ts

3. Put SOL in it #

Click your balance at the top of the page. The menu shows your Deposit address with a Copy button. The same address is on your portfolio at koine.markets/terminal. Send SOL to it from an exchange or another wallet. A message appears in your inbox when it lands.

Send SOL only. Tokens sent to it arrive, but Koine can't sell or withdraw them for you.

A buy needs a little more than its amount: Koine's fee, a small tip to land fast, the network fee, and sometimes about 0.002 SOL of rent for a new token account, which comes back later.

Source: app/web/src/account.tsx (AccountMenu, DepositCard), trade/server/deposits.ts, trade/server/trading.ts (quoteBuy), trade/server/refunds.ts

4. Choose your untie delay #

Before your first buy or presale deposit, Koine asks you to choose an untie delay. It's on your portfolio at koine.markets/terminal, under Choose your untie delay. The choices are 1 hour, 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, or None (untying is instant). None is a fine answer.

The delay is how long any loosening waits: removing a limit you set on yourself, a withdrawal, a new withdrawal address, and exporting your key. It buys you time if someone gets into your account. Making it longer is instant. Making it shorter waits the delay itself. Koine can't shorten it for you.

Until you choose, you can still sell and withdraw.

Source: trade/server/knots.ts (KNOTS untie_delay, chooseDelay, delayChosen), trade/server/web.ts (DELAY_FIRST), app/web/src/terminal/components/terminal/StartCards.tsx (DelayChoice, DELAY_CHOICES)

5. Find a coin #

Koine's site trades only coins launched on Koine. There are three ways to find one:

Search: the box at the top, "Search coins or paste CA". Type a ticker or name, or paste a coin's address.
Explore: every Koine coin in one table, with views such as All coins, Closing soon, Fairest presales, Just opened and Most traded.
Feed: the latest updates posted by every coin's creator.

Source: app/web/src/App.tsx (search box, nav), app/web/src/explore/Screener.tsx (VIEWS), app/web/src/Community.tsx (Feed), app/server/community.ts (feed), trade/server/presale.ts (notKoine)

6. Read the coin page #

Each coin's page has a short list of checks next to the chart (above the tabs on a phone). Each is marked good, worth watching, or bad, and opens to show its numbers:

Presale price: everyone paid, or pays, the same price.
What the dev holds: the creator's share of supply, against the 1% they must hold to earn fees.
Concentration: what the top 10 wallets hold, or during a presale, the largest depositor's share.
Liquidity: how deep the pool is compared with the market cap. A thin pool moves a lot on a few trades.
Activity: when the creator last posted an update.
Fee spike: what the 99% opening fee collected and how much was burned.

Below them are the tabs:

Community: the creator's updates and holders' replies.
Holders: the biggest wallets.
Trades: every trade in the pool.
Record: the coin's public log of every fee claim, buyback and burn, and the creator's steward panel.
Contract: the coin's addresses and timeline.

To check a coin from the chain yourself, see Verify a launch.

Source: app/web/src/CoinDesktop.tsx (Checks, SECTIONS), app/web/src/Coin.tsx

7. Buy in the presale #

While a coin's presale is open, its page has a Deposit in $TICKER button. Type an amount and press Deposit. You can take SOL back out with Withdraw until the presale ends.

Koine charges no fee on presale deposits, withdrawals, claims or refunds.
Everyone gets the same price, however early or late they deposit.
Your SOL goes into a Meteora vault, not to Koine. When the presale ends, it's locked for 65 minutes.
About an hour before trading opens, the vault buys the coin once with all deposits. Your tokens are your share of the deposits.
From 100 seconds after trading opens, your tokens unlock in a straight line over 24 hours. Press Claim whenever you like to move unlocked tokens into your wallet.
If the vault's buy never ran, press Withdraw my SOL after the opening time to get your whole deposit back.

Your limits (step 10) apply to deposits too.

Source: app/web/src/Trade.tsx (PresalePanel, ClaimPanel, useAction), app/web/src/CoinDesktop.tsx (PresaleFig), trade/server/web.ts (/web/presale/*), trade/server/presale.ts (presaleAction, checkDeposit), app/server/config.ts (RULES.unlockSeconds, RULES.protocolGapSeconds)

8. Buy after trading opens #

On the coin's page, press Trade $TICKER. Choose Buy, type an amount in SOL or pick one (0.05, 0.1, 0.5 or 1 SOL), and press Buy.

You see a quote before anything is spent:

You get about: the tokens the trade should get you.
At least: the fewest tokens you accept. If the price moves more than your slippage allows, the trade fails and only the network fee is spent.
You pay: the SOL amount.
Koine fee: 1%, or 0.9% if you joined through a referral link.
Network: the tip and network fee.
Token account rent: the first time you buy a coin, about 0.002 SOL that comes back later.

Press Confirm buy, or Cancel to spend nothing. A quote on screen is replaced every 20 seconds. If it expires, press Get a new one.

The coin's pool also takes its own trading fee from every trade. In the first 100 seconds after opening, that fee starts at 99% and falls to 1%. While it's above 10%, Koine's site asks you to confirm before it quotes. After that, the pool's fee is 1%.

Source: app/web/src/Trade.tsx (KoineTrade, high, sure), trade/server/web.ts (/web/quote, /web/send), trade/server/orders.ts (prepare), trade/server/referrals.ts (feeBpsFor), app/server/config.ts (RULES.fee)

9. Selling #

Open the same panel and choose Sell. Type a share of your tokens in percent, or pick 25%, 50% or All, and press Sell. You get a quote in SOL, then press Confirm sell.

Koine's fee on a sell is 1% (or 0.9%) of the least SOL you'd get back. Your limits never block a sell.

Source: app/web/src/Trade.tsx (KoineTrade), trade/server/orders.ts (fee), trade/server/knots.ts

10. Knots, in one paragraph #

Knots are limits you set on yourself while you're calm: most per buy, a daily loss limit, a pause after a loss, automatic take-profit and stop-loss sells, and more. Every knot is off until you tie it, and Koine holds you only to what you tie. Tying or tightening a knot is instant. Loosening or untying one waits your untie delay, so you can't undo it in the heat of the moment. A knot never blocks a sell or a withdrawal. You set them at koine.markets/profile/knots. See Knots.

Source: trade/server/knots.ts (KNOTS, loosens, change)

11. Getting your SOL out #

Withdrawals are SOL only. Sell your tokens first.

Go to your account page at koine.markets/profile, or press Withdraw in the menu under your balance.
Press Save address, paste a Solana address you control, and press Confirm and save. Koine asks you to sign in again. Your first address works at once. Changing it later waits your untie delay, and you can stop the change until then.
Press Withdraw, choose an amount or all, and confirm.

With no untie delay, the SOL goes out at once. With a delay, it waits that long, and you can cancel until then. SOL waiting to leave can't be spent on buys.

Each withdrawal needs two signatures: Koine's trading service and a separate service, the withdrawal approver. The approver keeps its own record of the address and the withdrawal you asked for, and refuses anything else. So Koine's trading server alone can't send your SOL anywhere else.

Your key. Press Export key on your account page to get the wallet's private key. It waits your untie delay, then you press Reveal my key within 24 hours, signing in again each time. The key arrives encrypted so only your browser can read it. After that, you can use the wallet anywhere, and Koine's limits and delays no longer protect it.

Source: trade/server/withdraw.ts (setAddress, requestWithdrawal, processWithdrawal, reserved), trade/server/export.ts (requestExport), trade/server/approver.ts, app/web/src/terminal/components/terminal/AccountWeb.tsx, app/web/src/account.tsx (AccountMenu)

Where to read more #

Accounts and sign-in: sign-in, the Koine wallet and what asks you to sign in again.
Trading: how a trade runs, slippage and every cost.
Presales: deposits, claims, refunds and buying at open.
Risks: what to know before you deposit.

Source: docs/terminal/README.md, docs/launchpad/README.md