Tokenomics

CAREL token is the native token of CAREL Protocol. Total supply is hard-capped at 1,000,000,000 CAREL.

Note: Tokenomics are not live yet and subject to legal review before mainnet. Numbers and mechanisms may change. This page reflects the v6 economic design — production-ready, stress-tested, honest about trade-offs.

Token Allocation

Category	Allocation	Total	Notes
Ecosystem	40%	400M	Linear 36 months, ~11.1M/month
Team	15%	150M	12-month cliff, 36-month linear (ends month 48)
Investor	15%	150M	12-month cliff, 24-month linear (ends month 36)
Treasury	10%	100M	Governance-controlled, multi-asset managed
Listing	10%	100M	TGE — exchange listing and initial liquidity
Marketing	7%	70M	3-month cliff, 6-month linear (ends month 9)
Liquidity	3%	30M	TGE — protocol-owned liquidity seed

Total: 1,000,000,000 CAREL.

Vesting Schedule (v6)

The v6 redesign enforces alignment: Team always finishes vesting after Investor. Investor can exit earlier as a reward for taking early risk; Team commitment is longer because they retain operational control throughout.

Category	Cliff	Linear	Ends	Monthly release
Listing	—	TGE	Month 1	—
Liquidity	—	TGE	Month 1	—
Marketing	Month 3	6 months	Month 9	~11.7M
Investor	Month 12	24 months	Month 36	6.25M
Team	Month 12	36 months	Month 48	4.17M
Ecosystem	—	36 months	Month 36	~11.1M
Treasury	Managed	—	—	Variable

v5 → v6 alignment fix: In v5, Team ended at month 36 and Investor ended at month 48 — Team had a 5-month window to sell before Investor could unlock. v6 reverses this. Investor ends month 36, Team ends month 48. Cliff dates are identical (month 12) for full market transparency.

3-Year Unlock Projection

Year	Cumulative unlocked	Remaining locked
Year 1	~437M CAREL	~563M CAREL
Year 2	~644M CAREL	~356M CAREL
Year 3	~816M CAREL	~184M CAREL

Fee Model

CAREL Protocol collects fees through on-chain contracts. All fees flow through FeeCollector → Treasury.

Swap and Limit Order Fees

Protocol fee: 0.2% on swap and limit order executions — 100% USDC to dev/ops
Bridge fee: 0.4% — 100% USDC to dev/ops
LP fees are separate and flow to liquidity providers only
NFT discount applies to protocol fee only, not LP fees

Discount formula:

protocol_fee_after_discount = protocol_fee × (1 − discount_bps / 10,000)

AI Execution Fees — Hybrid v6 Model

v5 used a flat burn (5/10 CAREL). v6 replaces this with a 3-component hybrid that fixes the self-defeating loop: flat burn keeps deflation floors, USD-target keeps user costs stable, buyback-burn scales with adoption.

Component ① — Flat burn (guaranteed deflation floor)

Level	Flat burn
L2 (AI on-chain)	2 CAREL → 100% burned
L3 (AI + Hide Mode)	3 CAREL → 100% burned

Component ② — USD-target revenue (stable in USD)

Level	USD target	CAREL amount	Routing
L2	$0.30	Dynamic via TWAP oracle	75% treasury, 25% buyback fund
L3	$0.50	Dynamic via TWAP oracle	75% treasury, 25% buyback fund

Component ③ — Buyback-burn epoch (scales with adoption)

25% of USD-target component accumulates weekly in buyback fund
Treasury buys CAREL from market, burns immediately
Burn pressure grows proportionally with AI transaction volume

User cost simulation (L2, 3 price scenarios):

CAREL price	Flat burn	USD-target	Total user cost	Burn per tx
$0.10	$0.20 (2 CAREL)	$0.30 (3.0 CAREL)	$0.50	~2.75 CAREL
$0.50	$1.00 (2 CAREL)	$0.30 (0.6 CAREL)	$1.30	~2.15 CAREL
$1.00	$2.00 (2 CAREL)	$0.30 (0.3 CAREL)	$2.30	~2.075 CAREL

At low price: more CAREL burned per dollar (flywheel up). At high price: minimum 2 CAREL/tx guaranteed — deflation never collapses to zero. User cost in USD stays roughly stable regardless of CAREL price.

Seed phase note: During months 1–2 (before TWAP oracle is reliable), flat burn is set to 5 CAREL/tx. After TWAP oracle is live (~1 week post-TGE), hybrid fee activates and flat drops to 2/3 CAREL.

AI fee parameters are adjustable via governance after mainnet.

Airdrop Claim Fee (On-chain)

When claiming from SnapshotDistributor or AirdropVesting:

5% claim fee applied on-chain automatically
Split: 2.5% burn + 1.25% treasury + 1.25% dev fund

Lock-Up Escrow (v6)

v5 bonus (2–5% nominal, 1–3 months) was an arbitrage loophole — investors could hedge via OTC and claim free yield. v6 replaces this with a real on-chain escrow contract (LockupEscrow) that eliminates the loophole.

Option	Duration	APR	Source	Early break penalty
Standard	None	0%	—	—
Lock-up A	6 months	8% APR	Treasury buyback fund	5% of principal + forfeit all bonus
Lock-up B	12 months	12% APR	Treasury buyback fund	5% of principal + forfeit all bonus

Mechanics:

CAREL is locked in escrow SC — cannot transfer, swap, or use as derivative collateral
APR accrues linearly and can be claimed mid-period or at end
Bonus is paid from treasury buyback fund (USDC → market buy CAREL → pay bonus) — no new minting
Early unlock deducts 5% from principal (burned) and forfeits all accrued bonus

Game theory: v6 lock-up requires a real commitment. Investors who choose lock-up are genuinely bullish — no free arbitrage. Expected opt-in: 20–35% (vs 70–80% in v5 where it was a loophole). Smaller but real.

Airdrop Recipient Vesting (v6)

v5 had instant airdrop claims — 95% of recipients sold within 7 days, making the ecosystem fund the largest sell-pressure source. v6 adds on-chain recipient vesting via AirdropVesting contract to spread the impact.

Claim amount	Vesting	Notes
< 1,000 CAREL/month	Instant	Small user friendly — no friction
1,000–10,000 CAREL/month	7-day linear	Slow farmer protection
10,000–50,000 CAREL/month	30-day linear	Medium whale gate
> 50,000 CAREL/month	90-day linear	Large claims must commit
Staker bypass	Instant	Users staked ≥ 30 days get instant claim regardless of tier

Economic effect: Effective sell pressure from ecosystem fund drops from ~7.7M/month (v5) to ~4–5M/month (v6) — a 35% reduction via vesting spread.

Monthly ecosystem stats at 11.1M/month:

Burn fee 2.5%: ~277K CAREL burned per month
Effective sell pressure post-vesting: ~4–5M CAREL/month (down from 7.7M)

Merkle root per epoch is set by admin (set_epoch_root). Proof is verified on-chain using Pedersen hash before any release.

Treasury Multi-Asset Strategy (v6)

v5 treasury was 95%+ CAREL — denomination risk. If CAREL price drops 50%, treasury value drops 50% but dev/ops costs in USD stay constant, forcing 2× faster drain. v6 fixes this.

Target treasury allocation (rebalanced per epoch):

Asset	Target	Purpose
USDC / stablecoin	35%	Dev/ops payroll, audit, infrastructure, marketing — hedge against CAREL price
CAREL	35%	Buyback-burn, NFT discount fund, staker rewards
ETH / BTC reserve	20%	Long-term reserve, value preservation, low correlation to CAREL
LP positions (CAREL/USDC, CAREL/ETH)	10%	Earn fees from protocol volume, deepen own liquidity

Auto-convert rule (smart contract level):

Every 5,000+ CAREL inflow to treasury triggers automatic 35% → USDC swap via DEX
Max 2% slippage guard — transaction aborts if exceeded
Weekly batch fallback if inflow threshold not reached
Quarterly governance review for target allocation adjustments

Result: Treasury has 18+ months operational runway even if CAREL drops 80%.

USD-denominated circuit breakers:

Treasury USD value	Burn policy
> $4M USD equivalent	25% burn — aggressive
$2M–$4M USD equivalent	15% burn — normal
$800K–$2M USD equivalent	5% burn — conservative
< $800K USD equivalent	Burn paused + emergency mode

Thresholds are USD-denominated (not CAREL-amount) to prevent false signals from price drops.

Burn Architecture — Honest Numbers

v5 claimed ~4.8M CAREL burned/month at 10K AI tx/day. v6 recalculates with the hybrid model:

AI tx/day	Flat burn/month	Buyback burn (at $0.20)	Claim fee burn	Total burn/month
500	30K	~56K	~277K	~363K
2,000	120K	~225K	~277K	~622K
5,000	300K	~562K	~277K	~1.14M
10,000	600K	~1.13M	~277K	~2.0M
25,000	1.5M	~2.81M	~277K	~4.6M

Assumptions: 70% L2, 30% L3, CAREL price $0.20.

v5 claimed 4.5M/month at 10K tx/day (100% flat model). v6 honest number: 2.0M/month at same conditions — lower, but correct.

Sell Pressure — Honest Math

v5 only counted investor sell pressure. v6 accounts for all four sources:

Source	Unlock/month	Est. % sold	Effective sell pressure/month
Investor (50% monthly cap)	6.25M	50%	3.13M
Team (50% monthly cap)	4.17M	40%	1.67M
Ecosystem (airdrop to users)	11.1M	~45% (post-vesting)	5.0M
Marketing tail	~2M	30%	0.6M
Lock-up bonus claimers	~0.5M	Variable	0.2M
Total realistic			~10.6M/month

Optimistic scenario (high commit rate, popular lock-up): ~7M/month. Pessimistic (panic sell): ~14M/month.

Break-even for net deflation (AI burn + treasury epoch burn combined):

10K AI tx/day → ~2M AI burn + ~1M epoch = ~3M total = covers 28%
25K AI tx/day → ~4.6M AI burn + ~1.5M epoch = ~6.1M total = covers 58%
50K AI tx/day → ~9M AI burn + ~2M epoch = ~11M total = covers 100%+ (net deflationary)

Honest conclusion: Net deflationary requires 25K–50K AI tx/day — not 10K like v5 claimed. At medium adoption (5–10K tx/day), supply grows slightly. This is fine — the protocol can succeed without being always-deflationary. What matters is real utility and revenue, not a burn narrative that collapses under stress.

Stress Test Matrix — Solvency 4×4

Published pre-mainnet as a transparency commitment. This matrix answers: at which adoption × price combinations is CAREL solvent at month 18 (worst-case post-cliff window)?

Adoption ↓ / Price →	$0.05	$0.20	$0.50	$1.00
500 tx/day	FAIL	STRESS	MARGINAL	MARGINAL
2K tx/day	STRESS	MARGINAL	OK	OK
5K tx/day	MARGINAL	OK	HEALTHY	HEALTHY
10K+ tx/day	OK	HEALTHY	HEALTHY	HEALTHY

Definitions:

HEALTHY — burn > sell pressure 1.5×
OK — burn covers sell pressure (ratio > 1.0)
MARGINAL — treasury runway 12+ months but burn < sell pressure
STRESS — circuit breaker active > 50% of time
FAIL — treasury depleted before month 24

v5 did not publish this matrix. v6 publishes it before mainnet — investors and users can see exactly which scenarios the system handles and which require fallback execution.

Emergency response by quadrant:

FAIL — pivot strategy, bootstrap fund + emergency campaign
STRESS — activate all fallbacks: bootstrap fund + emergency campaign + aggressive B2B push
MARGINAL — sustainable short-term, must exit to OK within 6 months
OK / HEALTHY — system working as designed, focus on growth

Points System

Points are earned for every on-chain action and tracked by the backend. Epoch totals are submitted on-chain via PointStorage and converted to CAREL at distribution.

Base Rates

Action	Points per USD
Swap	10 pts
Limit Order	12 pts
ETH Bridge	15 pts
BTC / WBTC Bridge	25 pts
Stake	3 pts

Multipliers

Staked Amount	CAREL multiplier
≥ 100 CAREL	2×
≥ 1,000 CAREL	3×
≥ 10,000 CAREL	5×
WBTC	1.5×
LP tokens	5×
USDT / USDC / STRK	1×

AI Bonus (runtime only)

Level	Points bonus
L2	+20%
L3	+40%

Hide Mode Bonus (by transaction size)

Hide volume (USDT-equivalent)	Bonus
≥ 5	+5%
≥ 10	+10%
≥ 50	+20%
≥ 100	+30%
≥ 250	+50%

Points Formula

total_points = (swap + bridge + stake + referral + social) × staking_multiplier × nft_factor

NFT discount soulbound holders get additional fee discounts applied at the protocol fee layer.

Monthly Airdrop Distribution

Each month, the backend finalizes point totals, generates a Merkle tree, and submits the root on-chain. Users claim proportionally:

reward = monthly_pool × user_points / total_points_epoch

Testnet uses a fixed 3% pool — claims transfer from this pool (no minting inside claim).

Mainnet: 40% ecosystem pool over 36 months (~11.1M CAREL/month). Recipient vesting applies at claim time via AirdropVesting contract (see Airdrop Recipient Vesting section above).

NFT Tiers

Five soulbound NFT tiers paid with points from PointStorage, providing fee discounts on protocol actions.

Tier	Name	Points cost	Discount	Max uses	Effective claim fee
1	Bronze	Free (min 1 tx)	5%	5	4.75%
2	Silver	15,000 pts + 10 CAREL	10%	7	4.50%
3	Gold	50,000 pts + 20 CAREL	25%	10	3.75%
4	Platinum	150,000 pts + 35 CAREL	35%	15	3.25%
5	Onyx	500,000 pts + 50 CAREL	50%	20	2.50%

Discount applies to: swap fee (0.2%), bridge fee (0.4%), AI execution fee, and airdrop claim fee. Effective claim fee = 5% × (1 − NFT discount%). The discount subsidy (fee shortfall) is covered by the treasury discount fund — protocol revenue is never reduced.

CAREL paid for NFT upgrades: 50% buyback-burned, 50% treasury reserve.

External Revenue Anchors

The protocol is designed to avoid full circular dependency (burn needs volume → volume needs users → users need price incentive → price needs burn). External revenue sources break this loop:

Source	Description	Target active
B2B API Access	Other protocols pay CAREL to use the AI execution layer	Month 6+
Treasury yield	35% USDC allocation deployed to zkLend/Nostra at 4–6% APR	Ongoing
Cross-chain fee sharing	Revenue from external bridge traffic routed through the protocol	Growth phase

Estimated contribution: 200–500K CAREL/month equivalent in stable revenue without depending on internal volume. This gives the protocol a revenue floor even if on-chain AI transaction volume is below breakeven.

Health Monitoring Thresholds

Key indicators tracked to detect system stress early:

Indicator	Green	Amber (action needed)	Red (circuit breaker)
Burn:unlock ratio/month	> 1.0 (by month 18)	0.5–1.0	< 0.5 for 3 consecutive months
NFT Silver+ % of users	> 15% at month 6	10–15%	< 10%
AI tx/day	> 10,000	5,000–10,000	< 1,000 at month 12
Treasury USD value	> $1.5M at month 12	$800K–$1.5M	< $800K
Unclaimed airdrop %	< 30%	30–50%	> 50% (engagement signal)
Investor/team sell volume	< 1M/day post-cliff	1–2M/day	> 2M/day

Amber response: activate bootstrap fund + 2× points event + aggressive B2B push.
Red response: governance review mandatory + circuit breaker parameters reviewed.

Governance

Fee parameters, burn splits, and distribution schedules are adjustable via on-chain governance (Governance + Timelock) after mainnet. Timelock enforces a minimum 48-hour delay on all parameter changes. Treasury allocation targets require governance vote for adjustments > 5%.

Discount NFT Contract Addresses