Token launches have historically been plagued by problems that hurt everyday participants while benefiting sophisticated actors with technical advantages. Front-running, sniping bots, and opaque pricing have turned what should be fair price discovery into a dark art.
Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) represent a fundamental shift in how we approach token distribution. Unlike traditional fixed-price sales or Dutch auctions, CCAs collect commitments over an extended period and settle all participants at a single, uniform clearing price.
The core principle is elegant: when the auction ends, the smart contract calculates a price that clears the market—the price at which the total committed capital equals the tokens available at that price point. Everyone who bid at or above this price receives tokens at the clearing price, and those who bid above get refunded the difference.
This mechanism eliminates several attack vectors that plague traditional launches. Since all participants receive the same price, there's no advantage to being first. Sniping bots become economically irrational—paying more doesn't get you more tokens, it just means a larger refund.
The mathematics ensure fairness is enforced at the protocol level, not promised by project teams. Participants can bid their true valuation without fear of overpaying, and projects can be confident that the clearing price represents genuine market demand.
Runner implements this mechanism natively on Solana, leveraging the network's high throughput and low latency to process thousands of bids efficiently. Our smart contracts have been audited by OtterSec and are fully open source for community review.