What Reef Perps is
Reef Perps connects token launches to token-specific perpetual strategies. A share of each token's trading taxes goes into its vault and funds a dedicated strategy on Lighter.
At launch the creator picks the trading pair, buy and sell taxes, perp markets, long or short, leverage, and who can update the strategy later. One transaction creates the token, the vault, the custody contract and the initial strategy. If any part fails, everything reverts.
Key terms
- Vault revenue — the share of token tax sent to the strategy vault.
- Strategy capital — vault revenue in USDG after the protocol tax is separated.
- Principal — the vault's original trading capital in custody or on Lighter.
- Settled profit — USDG brought back from Lighter above returned capital and recovered losses.
Launching a token
Launching deploys the token contract straight from your own wallet on Robinhood Chain. You choose the name, ticker, supply, a buy tax, a sell tax and the address every unit of tax is sent to. There is no factory in the middle and nothing is held by the protocol.
The tax rates and the recipient are written into the contract and cannot be changed afterwards, by the creator or by anyone else. The contract has no mint function, no withdraw function, no pause and no blacklist. Its only authority is marking which addresses are liquidity pools, so the token knows which transfers are trades, and that authority can be renounced for good.
Limits
- Tax up to 10% each side, enforced by the contract at deployment.
- Only trades against a registered pool are taxed; wallet to wallet never is.
- The whole supply is minted to the deploying wallet.
- Deployment costs gas and nothing else.
Strategy vaults
Attaching a vault and a perp strategy to a token needs the vault venue, which is offline for maintenance. A token launched today is a working taxed token; the vault attaches to it when that venue returns, and nothing about the token has to change for it.
Use the launch page — it prices the deployment and shows you every value going into the contract before you sign.
Tokens and taxes
The token is a standard ERC-20 with a trading tax. Protocol tax is reserved first; the creator divides 100% of the remainder among four destinations.
100 units of distributable tax
├── 25 units protocol treasury
│ ├── 20 units protocol buyback budget
│ └── 5 units operating budget
└── 75 units distributed by creator weights
├── strategy capital
├── holder dividends
├── token burn
└── liquidity
The token is not a share of the vault. Holding 1% of supply is not a claim on 1% of strategy capital. The connection runs through buybacks, dividends and — if enabled — DAO voting.
Strategy vaults
When tax income reaches the vault it is swapped into USDG and sent to the revenue router. The router separates the protocol share and assigns the remainder to the token's strategy.
A keeper sends strategy funds through the custody contract into the token's Lighter account and opens the positions saved onchain. Orders, positions, balances and PnL are handled on Lighter; the strategy settings are stored onchain.
Taking profit
- Available profit must reach the greater of $25 or 0.50% of gross open notional.
- Cycles are at least five minutes apart.
- The keeper reduces winning positions first and withdraws only realized profit above principal. Unrealized PnL is never distributed.
Protocol economics
Returned USDG is settled in three parts: principal goes back to the strategy balance, recovered losses are written back, and the remainder is profit.
140.00 USDG returned from Lighter
− 100.00 USDG original trading capital
− 0.00 USDG recovered finalized loss
= 40.00 USDG strategy profit
10.00 USDG profit dividends (25%)
30.00 USDG profit buyback (75%)
Strategy-profit buybacks buy and burn the vault's own token. Protocol-treasury buybacks spend 80% of protocol revenue on $REEF. "Burn" means a transfer to 0x…dEaD.
Governance modes
- Fixed — the deployer sets the first strategy; afterwards the protocol's configuration owner or Guardian manages updates.
- DAO — staked tokenholders vote on updates under threshold, quorum, approval, voting-period and cooldown rules stored onchain.
- Delegated — a master chosen at launch appoints delegates; master and delegates can replace the portfolio, only the master can transfer authority.
DAO participants and delegates change portfolio instructions, never custody recipients.
Custody and security
Every token receives a dedicated custody contract. That contract is the L1 address associated with the token's Lighter account, so capital moves on a fixed path:
- The router releases capital only to that token's custody contract.
- Custody deposits into its associated Lighter account.
- Lighter withdrawals return to the same custody contract.
- Custody settles returned funds back to the revenue router.
The Lighter API key can trade and request withdrawals, but a withdrawal cannot choose another recipient — Lighter returns USDG to the associated L1 address. Transfers to any other destination require an Ethereum signature from that address, which is a contract, not a wallet.
Frequently asked
Is the token a perpetual contract?
No. The token is an ERC-20. The perpetual positions live in a separate Lighter account owned by the custody contract.
Can the creator withdraw strategy capital?
No. Strategy authority changes portfolio instructions, not custody recipients. There is no principal-withdrawal function.
Are buybacks automatic?
Funds first enter an onchain accounting bucket; an authorized executor then runs the purchase with amount, minimum output, deadline and replay protection.
What happens to a loss?
Finalization writes down outstanding principal and records the unrecovered loss. If value later returns and is declared as loss recovery, it becomes strategy capital again.
What affects performance?
Market movement, funding, fees, liquidity, execution, leverage and position management on Lighter.