How Strike works

01Start here

Three things to know before anything else:

• No sign-up, no wallet to connect. Your browser makes a Solana wallet for you the first time you visit. Send a little SOL and the coin you want to use to that address and you are ready.
• Everything is paid in SOL on Solana. Premiums, strike payments and network fees. No other currency is involved.
• Nothing is borrowed. Every contract is backed 100% by coins that are already locked up. There is no leverage and nobody can get liquidated.

If you want to earn from coins you hold, go to Write a call. If you want to bet on a coin going up with limited downside, go to Trade a call.

02What a call is

A call is a deal between two people:

• The writer owns the coin. They lock it up and say: "Until this time, you may buy my coins at this price."
• The buyer pays the writer a fee up front, called the premium, to hold that right.

The words you will see everywhere:

• Strike — the fixed price the buyer may buy at, per coin, in SOL.
• Expiry — the deadline. After it, the deal is over.
• Premium — the fee the buyer pays the writer. The writer keeps it no matter what happens next.
• Exercise — when the buyer actually uses the right: pays strike × quantity and receives the coins.

"Covered" simply means the writer's coins are already locked in escrow, so if the buyer exercises, the coins are guaranteed to be there. That is why Strike needs no oracle and no margin.

03A worked example

Say a coin called PUMPCAT trades at 0.0000010 SOL. Ana holds 1,000,000 of them. Ben thinks it will pump.

1. Ana writes a call. She locks 1,000,000 PUMPCAT, sets the strike at 0.0000015 SOL (50% above today), expiry in 24 hours, and asks a premium of 0.05 SOL.
2. Ben buys it. He pays 0.05 SOL. Ana receives it immediately. Ben now holds the right, for 24 hours, to buy her 1,000,000 PUMPCAT for 1.5 SOL total (0.0000015 × 1,000,000).
3. If PUMPCAT pumps to 0.0000030 SOL, Ben exercises: he pays 1.5 SOL, gets coins worth 3.0 SOL. His profit is 3.0 − 1.5 − 0.05 = 1.45 SOL. Ana gets 1.5 SOL for coins she was happy to sell at that price, plus the 0.05 SOL premium she already had.
4. If PUMPCAT stays flat or dumps, Ben does nothing and the call expires. He loses the 0.05 SOL premium and nothing more. Ana's 1,000,000 PUMPCAT come straight back to her automatically, and she keeps the 0.05 SOL.

Two numbers the app shows you so you never have to work this out yourself:

• Breakeven — the price the coin must pass for the buyer to profit. Here: 0.0000015 + 0.05 ÷ 1,000,000 = 0.00000155 SOL.
• Premium yield — what the writer earns compared to the value they locked. Here: 0.05 ÷ (0.0000010 × 1,000,000) = 5% for one day.

04Which coins work

Any SPL token on Solana. The board lists coins from three places — pump.fun, Raydium and Stonkfun (stonkfun.xyz) — but you can paste any mint address into the search and open it. The escrow holds the token itself, so there is no allow-list to be on.

• Bonding and graduated coins both work. A pump.fun or Stonkfun coin still on its bonding curve and a coin that has graduated to a Raydium or PumpSwap pool are equally fine. A badge on the trade page tells you where it came from.
• Priced in SOL. Strikes and premiums are in SOL. If a coin's pool is quoted in USDC, the reference price is converted to SOL for display; settlement never depends on it.
• Token-2022 is fine. Both the classic token program and Token-2022 mints are accepted; the server reads the mint's program and decimals from chain before anything is locked.

Mint checks run again on the server when you deposit collateral, so they cannot be skipped from the UI.

05Life of a contract

1. Open — a writer locked coins and set terms. Anyone can buy it. The writer can still cancel and get the coins back.
2. Active — someone paid the premium. The call now belongs to that buyer. The writer can no longer cancel.
3. Exercised — the buyer paid the strike before expiry. Coins went to the buyer, strike payment went to the writer. Done.
4. Expired — the deadline passed without exercise. Coins went back to the writer automatically. Done.
5. Cancelled — an open call nobody bought was withdrawn by the writer. Coins went back. Done.

Expiry can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 days. The minimum premium is 0.0001 SOL. Every contract page keeps a log of each step with its Solana transaction hash.

06Your Strike wallet

Your wallet is the button in the top-right corner. It was created in this browser and the secret key never leaves it. Strike cannot see it and cannot recover it.

• Fund it by sending SOL (for network fees and anything you pay) and the coins you want to write calls on to the address shown. Balances update by themselves.
• Back it up. Open the wallet drawer and export the key before you send anything you would miss. Clearing site data deletes the wallet.
• Move it. Import that same key on another device and your positions follow you.

07Where the money goes

Contracts settle through the Strike treasury wallet on Solana. The pattern is always the same: you send a deposit, the server confirms it on chain, then the treasury sends whatever is owed.

Safety checks that run every time:

• Your deposit must be a confirmed transaction from your wallet for the exact amount. One transaction can pay for one thing, once.
• The terms you chose are signed by your wallet and tied to that deposit, so nobody can swap in a different strike or premium.
• Payouts are queued the instant your action is confirmed and retried until they land. The worker runs after every action, whenever you open your portfolio, and every minute on a schedule.

Honest caveat: while a contract is live, the treasury holds the coins. You are trusting Strike to run that wallet correctly. A trustless escrow contract is the next step.

08Prices & charts

• Every coin — price, liquidity, volume and trade counts come from its deepest Solana pool (pump.fun curve, PumpSwap, Raydium) via DexScreener and GeckoTerminal, refreshed every few seconds while you look at it and every minute for any coin with an open contract.
• Charts — OHLCV candles are read from the same pool, with every live strike drawn across them. If the pool has no candle history yet, the live DexScreener chart is embedded instead.

Prices are for information only. Settlement never looks at them: exercising is always "pay the strike, get the coins" at the terms fixed when the call was written. That is why there is no oracle to trust or to break.

09Risks, plainly

• These coins move fast. 50% in an hour is normal. Writers: only write if you are genuinely happy to sell at the strike. Buyers: a call can go from worthless to deep in profit and back before expiry.
• Thin markets. Many pools hold under $15k. The app flags this. A small trade can move the price, so do not treat the ITM/OTM chips as precise.
• The premium is spent. If you buy a call and never exercise, the premium is gone. You cannot resell a call yet.
• Expiry is exact. After the deadline, the buyer can do nothing. Set a reminder.
• Custody. Locked coins and in-flight SOL sit in the treasury until paid out.
• Your key is in your browser. Export it, and do not keep more in the wallet than you are actively using.

10FAQ

Is there a fee?

No protocol fee. The premium and the strike go entirely to the writer. You only pay the Solana network fee on your own deposits, which is a fraction of a cent.

Can I use a coin that is not on the board?

Yes. Paste its mint address into the search. If a Solana pool exists for it, it opens like any other coin.

Can I sell a call after I buy it?

Not yet. You can exercise it or let it expire.

What if the coin graduates while my call is open?

Nothing changes for the contract. Only the chart and price source switch from the bonding curve to the new Raydium or PumpSwap pool.

How quickly do I get paid?

Usually under a minute.

What happens if I close the tab?

Nothing. Expiry refunds and payouts happen on the server whether or not you are online.

Ready? Browse the board or write your first call.