Creator fees: how you earn
If you launch a token on Kumbaya, your on-chain reward comes from one main source: a share of trading fees after the token graduates, paid out forever for as long as people trade your token. This page covers how that works, what triggers it, and where to find your earnings in the app.
Quick clarification on terminology. "Tips" on Kumbaya are a separate income stream - they're how content creators (people posting yaps, replies, and media in token threads) earn. As a token creator, your launch reward is the streaming-fee income this page covers. And if you also post content in your own token's thread, you can earn tips on top of that, like any other content creator - see Tipping.
How it works
When your token graduates, the bonding-curve liquidity consolidates into a single full-range Uniswap V3 position. That position keeps collecting fees on every swap going forward, forever. The fees are then split as follows on every claim:
Protocol
80%
You, the creator
20%
On-chain today the protocol collects a single 80% and you get the 20% remainder. Of that 80%, 30% (of total fees) is reserved against an upcoming Kumbaya feature that rewards cults - it's collected by the protocol for now and will be split out when the feature ships (the docs will be updated then, and the reserved funds distributed on release). Your 20% is unaffected either way.
You earn both sides of every trade:
The numeraire (typically ETH) when someone buys your token.
Your own token when someone sells it.
So a successful, actively traded token compounds for you in both directions. The longer it's traded, the more you accrue.
Where to claim
On your token's page on kumbaya.xyz, the creator earnings panel shows Claim Fees. Clicking it triggers a single transaction that sweeps both sides of the accumulated fees to your wallet.
💡 Anyone can call Claim Fees. The smart contract lets anyone trigger a fee distribution; you just receive your share. So even if you're hands-off, your earnings will flow through if someone else calls it. Calling it yourself is the most reliable.
When earnings start
Pre-graduation (bonding phase)
The curve is building toward graduation - the milestone that switches on your fee stream.
At graduation
The bonding-curve liquidity consolidates into the full-range NFT, and your streaming-fee meter starts.
Post-graduation (forever)
Every swap on the pool flows fees to you (alongside the protocol's share).
Graduation is what starts your fee stream, and force graduation guarantees it gets there: anyone can trigger graduation after a long enough wait (currently 180 days / 6 months, governance-set), so your stream begins regardless.
Visual: timeline of token-creator earnings
Common questions
Are creator fees real ETH and real tokens? Yes - real on-chain ETH and your real on-chain token, sent directly to your wallet via on-chain transactions. There's no platform-side "points" sitting between the contract and you.
What if my token never graduates? Your streaming fees switch on at graduation, and it's guaranteed to get there eventually: if a token sits a long time without crossing the threshold, anyone can force-graduate it (currently 180 days / 6 months, governance-set), starting your fee stream.
Do tips affect my creator income at all? No. Tips are a content-creator economy: buyers earn small tip-bonus credits when they buy a token, and they can tip any user - typically yappers in the token thread - by signing a gasless message. Tips land in the recipient's Tip Jar (jar icon in the header, Received tab). If you also post content in your token's thread, you can earn tips that way like anyone else, but it's separate from the streaming-fee income that's tied to launching the token.
My wallet isn't recognized as the creator - what do I do? You're probably looking at an unclaimed token. Most of the time this means your launch was associated with a different signer (e.g. an embedded wallet from a different login). The fix is to claim the listing - see that page for the full flow.
Do I get fees on swaps that happen during the graduation transaction? The graduation transaction itself sweeps any pre-graduation fees to the protocol; from the graduation transaction onward, every swap flows to you under the post-grad split.
Why don't creators get a share of pre-graduation trading fees? By design - pre-grad trading happens on a bonding curve where every trade contributes to graduating the token. Pre-grad fees fund protocol operations, such as the cost to run our guardian which performs graduations and tips at the protocols expense. The creator's reward is the post-graduation stream that compounds for the lifetime of the token.
Where to next
Tipping → - the content-creator side of Kumbaya's economy
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