How Curva works.
Clans of traders, one stock each, one match every market day. Everything you need to know, in plain words.
A match
Season 1 has twelve curvas, one per stock token on Robinhood Chain: Nvidia, Tesla, SpaceX, gold, silver, Apple, the Nasdaq-100, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, GameStop and Hims & Hers. You pick one for the season.
Every market day, each curva plays another one. A match lasts one regular session of the New York Stock Exchange: from the opening bell at 9:30 am to the closing bell at 4:00 pm, New York time. No match on weekends or market holidays.
During the match, the traders of a curva trade its stock token from their own wallet: on Curva or on any app on Robinhood Chain. Buy the dip, sell the rip, sit it out: every trade between the bells counts.
The score
You play a match when you make at least one trade of your curva's stock during the session. Your score is the return of your position over the session.
Each trade counts at the market price around it, on the safe side: a buy at the higher of the prices just before and just after it, a sale at the lower. Your own price impact can never earn you points. The opening and closing prices are one-minute averages.
A curva's score is the average of its players' gains, each player weighted by the money they put on the line (what they held at the bell plus what they bought), up to $1,000. Not the total: a whale can't decide a match alone, and a swarm of tiny wallets weighs almost nothing. A curva needs at least three players in a match: short of that it loses, and if both curvas are short, nobody gets points.
Only wallets signed up before the opening bell play that day's match.
The season
Three points for a win, one for a draw, nothing for a loss. A draw is two curvas within 0.05% of each other. Level on points, the better average gain across matches ranks first, then the number of players.
Season 1 starts the moment $CURVA launches. If Wall Street is open with at least two hours left, the first match starts right away and ends at that day's closing bell; otherwise it starts at the next opening bell.
The league then runs for 22 matchdays, one per market day: every curva plays every other twice. Then the top eight play knock-out matches, every second market day: quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final. A knock-out has no draw: level, the higher seed goes through.
Opening day is six derbies at once: the king against the index (Nvidia v Nasdaq-100), the Elon derby (Tesla v SpaceX), gold v silver, Apple v Microsoft, Amazon v Alphabet and the meme derby (GameStop v Hims & Hers).
Prizes
The prize pot is every creator fee $CURVA earns: a share of each $CURVA trade on Pons, all of it for the champions. It's counted from the chain every minute and shown live below.
At the end of the season the whole pot is turned into the champion curva's stock token and sent to its players, in proportion to the money each one put on the line over the season: what they held at each opening bell plus what they bought, up to $1,000 a match, the same weight as in the score. Splitting a stack across many wallets gains nothing.
The player of the season, the best average with at least ten matches, is crowned on the site.
Rules
- One wallet, one curva. A wallet plays for one curva for the whole season. You can switch once, in the transfer window between matchday 11 and matchday 12.
- Only the session counts. Trades before the opening bell or after the closing bell don't score.
- No wash trades. Trading with yourself, or in circles between linked wallets, scores nothing and can get a wallet removed.
- No one decides alone. A player weighs at most $1,000 in their curva's average, and their gain counts for at most +50% or −50%.
- Small trades count, dust doesn't. A trade must be worth at least $10 to count.
These are the Season 1 rules. The final version is published here before kick-off.
FAQ
Is Curva a bet?
No. There's no stake and no odds. You trade your own stock tokens, as you would anyway, and Curva keeps the score.
What is a stock token?
A crypto token on Robinhood Chain that follows the price of a share or a fund, like NVDA or GLD. It isn't a share: no voting rights, no dividends. Curva has nothing to do with the companies behind them.
Which wallets work?
Signing up works with any wallet. To trade on Curva you need one that works with Robinhood Chain, like MetaMask, Rabby or Coinbase Wallet; on a phone, open Curva in your wallet app's browser. Curva never asks for your seed phrase, and joining a curva costs nothing.
Can I play for two curvas?
Not with the same wallet. One wallet, one curva, one season.
When does it start?
The moment $CURVA launches: right away if Wall Street is open with at least two hours left, otherwise at the next opening bell. Sign-ups are open now: pick your curva, connect your wallet and sign once. It's free and sends no transaction, and you're ready at the first bell.
How do I trade during a match?
On your curva's page or the match page: buy its stock token with ETH or sell it for USDG, through Uniswap on Robinhood Chain. You can also trade on any other app; the engine reads the chain, so every trade from your wallet counts.
How are the champions paid?
The prize pot is every creator fee $CURVA earns, counted from the chain and shown live on the site. After the final, the whole pot is turned into the champion curva's stock token and sent to its players' wallets, each in proportion to the money they put on the line over the season. The list of shares is published here.
Can a rival sink my curva with fake wallets?
No. Each player counts in proportion to the money they put on the line, up to $1,000, so a swarm of tiny wallets weighs almost nothing. Each trade is also valued on the safe side, so nobody can earn points from their own price impact.
Does Curva take a fee on trades?
No. Trades go straight through Uniswap's router; you pay the pool's fee and the network's gas, nothing to Curva.
Are the numbers on the site real?
Yes. The calendar, the New York clock, the stock prices and the member counts are real, and so are results, line-ups and players once the season starts: they are computed from the chain every minute during a match. Add ?sample=1 to any page to see a made-up season.
Photo credits
Every photo on Curva is a real photograph shared under a free licence on Wikimedia Commons. They are cropped and resized; the licences apply to the edited versions too.