The Vault

This page explains the Vault: what it holds, the four different things you will see on a collection page, and what moves them. Read it before you rely on any of those numbers.

Every collection launched on KURV has one

Every collection launched on KURV has a Vault, and it can hold $0. Collections brought over from another launchpad have none and trade here at their own royalty, up to 10%. The creator decides how much of each mint goes into it, from nothing at all, and a Vault that opens at $0 is normal.

The Vault gets whatever mint money the creator leaves in it, plus 25% of every royalty paid in the collection’s own coin: every sale on KURV’s market, and royalties on other marketplaces paid in that coin once someone routes them. A royalty paid in any other coin sends the Vault’s quarter to the creator. It also gets every mint top-up and what its own resales bring after the creator’s and KURV’s royalty shares, and on every sell-back it keeps 10% of the backing and its 25% of the royalty. The Vault’s share of a trade counts toward Vault Backing and the Vault Exit once it is booked, at the next mint or Vault sale. So a Vault is always in one of two states, and the collection page shows which:

State	Sell-back	What you are looking at
A Vault holding $0	Offered, pays once money is booked into it	Nothing has been booked into the Vault so far. A creator who keeps the whole mint, or who launches a free collection, starts here on purpose. Its share of trades counts once a mint or a Vault sale books it.
A funded Vault	Offered, pays	The Vault holds the collection’s coin and will buy back any piece a collector holds today.

A Vault at $0 is an ordinary state for a new collection.

What the Vault is

A Vault belongs to one collection and serves only that collection. It:

• holds that collection’s backing: the collection’s coin, set aside behind the pieces;
• buys pieces back from holders who want out;
• keeps each returned piece as Vault Inventory;
• sells that inventory again, even when no piece is out;
• receives its share of the royalty on every sale made through KURV, counted once it is booked.

Every piece is kept: a sold-back piece waits in the Vault’s inventory, and the Vault can sell it, even when no piece is out. If every piece is sold back, the next paid piece restarts the collection at its Last Vault Backing, whether it is minted or bought from the Vault. A free piece cannot restart it, and what the Vault kept stays in it.

Backing belongs to the collection and stays in the Vault. Fees KURV and the creator have earned are held separately from it, and nobody at KURV can move a Vault’s backing.

Every piece a collector holds can be sold back to its own collection’s Vault, whenever that Vault holds money to pay for it.

Four things, kept apart

These get confused, so KURV keeps them apart and so should you.

Market Floor is the lowest price anyone is currently asking for a piece in the collection. Collectors set it, and it moves whenever someone lists or delists. It is the only figure KURV calls a floor, and KURV makes no promise about it.

Vault Backing is the money in the Vault divided by the number of pieces that have a claim on it.

A Vault holding $10,000 behind 100 pieces still out has $100 of Vault Backing per piece.

Vault Exit is what you would actually receive, today, for selling one piece to the Vault. It is the backing for that piece less two deductions, and it is always the smaller figure.

That same piece, in a collection with a 10% royalty: $100 of backing, less the $10 the Vault keeps and a $10 royalty, is an $80 Vault Exit.

Vault Inventory is the pieces the Vault holds after buying them back. They wait there, and the Vault can sell them again, even when no piece is out. They have no claim on the backing, so they are left out when Vault Backing per piece is worked out.

Market Floor and Vault Exit move independently. A collection can have a $500 Market Floor and a $0.50 Vault Exit at the same time: the market is pricing the art, and the Vault is showing the money actually set aside. Neither is a promise. See Risks and disclaimer.

Where backing comes from

Source	What reaches backing
Paid mint	What is left after KURV’s 5% fee and the creator’s share. The creator picks 0% to 100% of that 95%. At 100%, nothing from the price reaches backing and the Vault opens at $0.
Vault top-up	When the part of a phase price that reaches the Vault is below the Vault Backing per piece, the mint adds the difference, and all of it reaches backing.
A sale between collectors, through KURV	25% of the royalty, once a mint or a Vault sale books it. The creator sets the royalty at 5% to 10%.
A sell-back	The 10% of the backing it keeps, plus its 25% of the royalty. Both are worked on the piece’s backing.
A Vault resale	The sale price, less the creator’s and KURV’s shares of the royalty.

Worked through, on $100:

• A $100 paid mint. KURV takes $5. At a 0% creator share, $95 reaches backing; at 25%, $71.25; at 50%, $47.50; at 100%, nothing.
• A $10 paid mint into a Vault with $8 of backing per piece, at a 50% creator share: $4.75 comes from the price and a $3.25 top-up brings it to $8. Fees shows every line.
• A $100 sale between collectors at a 10% royalty sends $2.50 to the collection, which counts as backing once it is booked, and adds no piece.
• A sell-back of a piece carrying $100 of backing, at a 10% royalty, leaves $12.50 behind: the $10 the Vault keeps plus its $2.50 of royalty.
• A $100 Vault resale at a 10% royalty leaves $92.50 in the Vault.

A free collection starts with $0 in the Vault. Backing counts money that has actually arrived, and only that.

What moves Vault Backing per piece

Vault Backing per piece is the money divided across the pieces still held by collectors.

• Paid mints add money and add a piece. Each new piece brings at least the Vault Backing per piece, topped up if its price falls short, so the pieces already out keep their backing.
• Sales between collectors send the Vault’s share of the royalty to the collection without adding a piece. It counts once it is booked, at the next mint or Vault sale, and Vault Backing per piece goes up then.
• Sell-backs pay the seller and send the creator’s and KURV’s royalty shares out. The returned piece moves to Vault Inventory and stops counting. The 10% the Vault keeps and its royalty share stay, spread across fewer pieces.
• Vault resales put a piece from Vault Inventory back into circulation. The Vault agrees only when what it keeps from the sale covers the backing that piece needs. The Vault asks the piece’s Vault Backing plus 20%, $120 for $100 of backing, which at any royalty up to 10% always covers the backing it needs. While no piece is out, it asks the Last Vault Backing plus 20%, and that sale restarts the collection.
• Free mints add a piece and no money, so each one spreads the same backing across one more piece.

Contract bugs and rounding still apply. See Risks and disclaimer.

The Vault’s own page

On a collection page, See the Vault opens the Vault’s own page. Every figure on it comes straight from the collection’s contract and refreshes while the page is open.

Figure	What it is
Vault Backing	The Vault balance over the pieces out.
Vault Exit	What the Vault pays for one piece today.
Vault balance	The money the Vault holds for the pieces.
Pieces out	The pieces collectors hold, with how many were minted and how many the Vault holds.
Next piece	What the next mint costs, with any Vault top-up in it.
Minted	Pieces minted, out of the collection’s size.
Royalty	The resale royalty, fixed for the life of the collection.
Last Vault Backing	The Vault Backing last recorded while a piece was out.

Below the figures sit the terms fixed at launch, the phases of the sale, and Every Vault move: each mint, sell-back, Vault sale and contribution, newest first, with the Vault balance and the Vault Backing after it.

Related

• Sell a piece back to the Vault: the actual steps, and how your payout is protected.
• Fees: every deduction, with worked examples.
• Risks and disclaimer: read before you rely on any of this.