What is a primary?

A primary is a short, scheduled vote on which meme should become a token. Four candidates go on a ballot. You back the one you want to exist by committing USDC to it. When the ballot closes, the candidate with the most USDC behind it is minted as a token on Base and handed to the people who backed it. Everyone who backed a different candidate gets their USDC back.

How a round works

1. The ballot opens. Four memes appear with a name, a ticker and a one-liner. A countdown shows when voting closes (rounds run about an hour, a few times a day — see the schedule).
2. You back a meme. Pick one and commit USDC — $5, $20, $50, $100 or a custom amount, up to $500 per wallet per round. You can spread it across more than one candidate if you like.
3. The ballot closes. The meme with the most USDC wins. If the lead changes in the last two minutes, the round goes into overtime (below).
4. The winner is minted. The token is created, a trading pool is seeded, and you claim: tokens if you backed the winner, a full refund if you didn't, plus a small consolation slice of the new token either way.

What happens to your money

• If your pick loses, you get every dollar back. Refunds are exact, in USDC, claimable as soon as the round settles.
• If your pick wins, you receive tokens — at the same price as every other backer, in proportion to what you committed. Nobody gets an earlier or cheaper allocation. The pool opens at that same price too (minus the fee), so there is no gap for bots to front-run.
• There is a 1% fee on the winning total only. It pays for running the primaries. Losing commits are never charged anything.
• $500 cap per wallet per round. This keeps a primary a popularity contest rather than a whale contest. Anyone can still buy as much as they like on the open market after launch.
• $2,000 minimum. If the winning meme has less than $2,000 behind it, the round is voided and everyone is refunded. This avoids minting tokens with no real interest behind them.

Overtime

To stop last-second sniping, if the leader changes during the final two minutes, the close moves back by two minutes. This can happen at most three times, so a round can run six minutes past its scheduled close but no more.

The consolation slice

5% of every new token is set aside for the people who backed a losing candidate, split in proportion to what they committed. You still get your USDC back in full — the consolation tokens are on top. If everyone backed the winner, that slice is burned.

What happens after launch

• The token trades on Uniswap on Base, paired against USDC. The pool is seeded with the winning USDC (minus the 1% fee) and an equal share of the token supply.
• Liquidity is permanently locked. Nobody — not the team, not the submitter — can pull it.
• The meme's submitter earns half the trading fees for life. The other half goes to the protocol. That's the reward for submitting a meme that wins.

Risks, in plain words

• Only the primary itself is no-loss. Once a token launches, it is a memecoin. Its price can go up, and it can lose most or all of its value. Do not commit money you would mind turning into a token that ends up worthless.
• Tokens are not shares of anything and carry no promise of returns. Nothing here is investment advice.
• Smart contracts can have bugs. The contract is small and tested, but it has not yet been independently audited.

Safety

• Your USDC sits in a contract that nobody can withdraw from, except to refund you or to seed the winner's pool. There is no admin key that can move committed funds.
• Refunds and tokens are pulled by you, so a problem with one claim can never block anyone else's.
• If a launch fails, the round can be voided and everyone is refunded — and if nobody does that, anyone can trigger refunds themselves after 24 hours.
• Sign-in is with Coinbase Wallet. Gas on Base is sponsored where possible, so you only need USDC.

Content policy

No real people, living or dead, and no lookalikes. No trademarks, brands or protected characters. No hate, harassment or sexual content. Submissions pass automatic checks and then a human ballot editor approves every candidate before it appears.

FAQ

Why USDC?

So a dollar in is a dollar back. Refunds and prices stay simple, and the new token trades against a stable pair.

Why a cap?

So the ballot reflects how many people want a meme, not how deep one pocket is. $500 per wallet per round.

What if it's a tie?

The candidate that reached the tied total first wins.

Can I back more than one?

Yes. Your commits across all four candidates count toward the same $500 cap.

What is a “primary”?

Borrowed from elections: a vote that decides who makes it onto the real ballot. Here, the crowd decides which meme earns a token — before it exists, at one fair price.