> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.priest.trade/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Market Lifecycle

> Every market on Priest.trade moves through a clear set of stages, managed directly by the smart contract.

Every market on Priest.trade moves through a clear set of stages, managed directly by the smart contract.

***

## Market stages at a glance

```
[ New Coin Launch ] ──> [ Warmup (24h, 10x max) ] ──> [ Active (40x max) ]
                                                              │
                                                        Clears 5 Gates
                                                              ▼
[ Existing Coin Listing ] ─────────────────────────> [ Graduated (Uniswap v4) ]
                                                              │
                                                        (Rare emergency)
                                                              ▼
                                                        [ Delisted ]
```

***

## The stages explained

### 1. Warmup

* **When:** The first 24 hours after a new coin is created.
* **Rules:** The market is fully tradeable, but maximum leverage is capped at **10x**.
* **Why:** Lets early price discovery happen without instant 40x liquidations.

### 2. Active (Primary Rail)

* **When:** Warmup ends automatically after 24 hours.
* **Rules:** Maximum leverage raises to **40x**. All order types (Market, Limit, TP/SL) are fully active.
* **Progress:** The coin starts tracking progress toward graduation.

### 3. Transition

* **When:** The market clears all 5 graduation gates and graduation is executed.
* **Rules:** Trading pauses briefly while the engine seeds the Uniswap v4 spot pool and burns the LP position NFT to `0x...dEaD`.
* **Positions:** Existing trades remain intact across the transition.

### 4. Graduated (Secondary Rail)

* **When:** The Uniswap v4 pool is live and confirmed.
* **Rules:**
  * Trades off the on-chain spot oracle with worst-of fills and skew premiums.
  * Opening leverage starts at 15x and increases by 5x a day up to 40x.
  * Automatically backed by the **Counterflow Vault (`cfUSDC`)**.
  * Graduated markets cannot be deleted or ungraduated.

### 5. Delisted (Close-Only)

* **When:** Used only in extreme cases (e.g. underlying token exploit or protocol emergency).
* **Rules:** No new positions can be opened. You can close existing trades and withdraw your collateral at any time.

***

## See also

* [The vAMM Primary Market](https://docs.priest.trade/core-concepts/vamm-explained.md) — how primary markets trade.
* [The Secondary Market Engine](https://docs.priest.trade/core-concepts/secondary-market-engine.md) — how graduated markets trade.
* [Graduation into Uniswap v4](https://docs.priest.trade/launching-tokens/graduation.md) — what happens when a market graduates.


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