Documentation

Portex in one page

An on-chain incubation protocol for AI startups on X Layer, in the founder's own words:

Back cutting-edge AI innovation, as an early VC with protective terms.

In an era where AI is reshaping everything, every startup needs the room to experiment. Portex is the first escrow-backed on-chain incubation protocol: funds remain fully protected until genuine external demand is proven. If a project does not graduate from incubation, backers can reclaim 100% of their principal with zero loss; only when a project truly breaks out does it enter the open market.

Portex holds every deposit in escrow under rules fixed before the first deposit. A project reaches the open market only after two stages that test for genuine external demand, and until then every backer can leave at exactly what they paid.

A launchpad sells tokens and steps aside. Portex stays in the middle: it custodies the raise, prices it on a published curve, keeps each backer's cost claim alive until listing, and lists the project on Uniswap v4 with liquidity that can never be withdrawn.

• Protected until demand is proven. In Stage 1 and Stage 2, any backer can exit at their exact cost, with zero fees, or move it into another project in one transaction.
• Founders on the same terms. No free tokens. Team purchases follow the same curve, are capped at 10% of supply and vest for three years after listing.
• Spending only by vote. All fees and 10% of the token supply go to the project's own treasury, which pays out only through proposals that pass a vote.
• Rewards for those who stay. 30% of supply, plus a share of Stage 2 fees, streams daily for three years to original backers who keep their tokens.

The lifecycle

Every launch, of either type, runs through the same three stages. Each stage has a deadline, and anyone can move the launch forward when it is due.

Protection is a property of the stage, not a promise about the project. Until the listing transaction executes, every backer position can be exited at its exact cost; on a Budget Launch, that is its cost after any voted budgets. Listing ends this claim for everyone at once and delivers the tokens as ordinary ERC-20 balances.

The builder chooses both stage lengths within bounds set by the protocol, and they are fixed before the first deposit. See Governed timings.

Cost exits end when the open market begins; on Budget Launches, a voted budget can reduce principal. Without external demand, there is no loss and no profit, subject to that budget boundary.

Backer guide

From your first deposit to listing, or to taking your principal back.

Join a raise

1. 1Open Projects and choose a project in Stage 1 · Incubation. Its page shows the stage and the time left, and the Overview tab holds the description, the AI analyst's report and the builder's updates.
2. 2Press Connect wallet. On testnet, if your USDG balance is empty, the deposit panel offers to mint TEST USDG; you also need a little test OKB for gas. See Connect to X Layer testnet.
3. 3In What you can do now, choose Deposit and enter an amount. The quote shows the tokens you receive and what you pay; any amount the curve cannot use is returned.
4. 4The first time, the button reads Approve USDG: approve, then press Deposit and confirm in the transaction drawer. To pay with capital from another project, set Pay from to Other projects.

Leave before listing

1. 1Choose Exit at cost, pick the position and the quantity. You receive exactly what those tokens cost, with zero fees, at any time until the listing transaction.
2. 2In Stage 2, Protected exit pays your cost plus the elapsed share of your gain, as far as outside demand has funded it. The quote shows the cost and the profit separately.
3. 3Under Treasury & votes, vote on budgets and treasury spends with Vote YES or Vote NO. Voting never blocks an exit.

At listing and after

1. 1When Stage 2 ends, anyone can press List on Uniswap. Your tokens then arrive in your wallet automatically; there is nothing to claim.
2. 2Keep your tokens to receive the Diamond Hand stream, and press Claim rewards on the project page. Selling or transferring reduces your reward quota.
3. 3Trade on Markets; see the Trader guide.
4. 4If the project is dissolved instead, press Take back principal, or Move into another project to deposit it straight into another Stage 1.
5. 5Portfolio lists every position, and the bell in the header shows what needs you: claims, votes and listings.

RelatedStage 1 · IncubationExitsDissolution and rolloverStage 3 · Open market

Builder guide

Launching a project, running it through the stages, and what you receive.

Launch

1. 1Choose the launch type. Escrow Launch if the product can fund itself from treasury budgets and its own revenue; Budget Launch if you need voted draws on the raise before listing. See Launch types.
2. 2Open Launch a project and work through the steps: Launch type, Basics (name, symbol, description, website), Capital (supply and target valuation, at least $100,000), Schedule (the two stage lengths, within the bounds shown), Rules (additional builder addresses and, for a Budget Launch, the budget ceiling) and Review.
3. 3Press Launch project and sign. The terms are fixed from this moment and cannot be changed after anyone deposits.

Run the raise

1. 1On your project page, press Open builder console. Fill in the Project profile, choose Upload image for the Project image (PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 2 MB), then Sign & save profile.
2. 2Use Post a public update for milestones and incidents; backers read them on the project page.
3. 3When the analyst publishes a report, answer it under Respond to the latest analyst report. Your response appears beside the report.
4. 4You may buy on the same curve as everyone else, up to 10% of the supply in total. Your purchases do not count toward the minimum of 10 backers and carry no reward quota.
5. 5Budget Launch, Stage 2: under Treasury & votes, Propose a draw. Backers vote by capital. When voting ends, anyone can Finalize vote; once the dispute window has passed, Execute budget pays the draw and reduces every position's cost in proportion.

Listing, dissolution and income

1. 1At the Stage 2 deadline anyone lists the project. Your purchases then vest: a 30-day cliff, then linear release over three years; press Claim vested tokens as they unlock.
2. 2After listing, fund the work with Propose a treasury spend. Token holders vote; your own addresses cannot.
3. 3If the project should not continue, Dissolve project once the Stage 1 minimum has passed. Every position then takes back its full cost.

RelatedLaunch typesTreasury and votingThe AI analystGoverned timings

Trader guide

Buying and selling before listing in the Stage 2 book, and after listing in the pool.

Stage 2: the book

1. 1Open a project in Stage 2 · Series A buffer. The Market tab shows the price chart and the recent trades.
2. 2In What you can do now, choose Buy, enter USDG and set the price tolerance. The quote shows the tokens you receive, the 1% trading fee, the price impact and the minimum you will accept.
3. 3Your tokens stay in the protocol's ledger until listing. You can Sell them back to the book at any time until then, again with a 1% fee. At listing they arrive in your wallet.

Stage 3: the pool

1. 1Open Markets and choose a project. The page shows the price in candles, the recent trades and the pool's facts.
2. 2In the trade panel, choose Buy or Sell and enter the amount you pay. The quote comes live from the pool: average price, price impact, the 1% pool fee and the minimum received under your slippage tolerance (1% by default).
3. 3The first trade of each asset asks you to approve the Portex swap router; then confirm the swap in the transaction drawer. If the price moves beyond your tolerance first, nothing is exchanged.

Risks

• Stage 2 buyers are not backers: they have no cost protection, no protected exit and no reward quota.
• After listing, the price is set by an open market and can fall below what anyone paid.
• Large trades move the price. Check the price impact against the pool's liquidity.
• Selling tokens that carry reward quota destroys the same amount of quota.

RelatedStage 2 · Series A bufferMarkets and tradingFees

Analyst guide

What the AI analyst does, and how people and programs can read the same data.

The AI analyst

• It reviews each raise in Stage 1, including the number of backers and the share of capital linked to the builder, and publishes a report with a risk score and findings on the project's Overview tab.
• It may delay graduation from Stage 1 with a veto, within a fixed budget. It cannot approve, reject or touch funds. See The AI analyst.
• The builder can answer every report publicly.

The public API

Everything in the app is also available as JSON, without an account or a key. The testnet API is at https://testnet-api.portex.vc/v2. Amounts are integers in base units (USDG has 6 decimals, tokens 18) and prices are scaled by 10^18, except on the market endpoints (/markets, candles, pool-trades), which return decimal strings in USDG per token.

Every value can be checked against the contracts in Deployed contracts. Writes to the chain always go through your own wallet, never through the API.

RelatedThe AI analystDeployed contracts

Administrator guide

The protocol's roles, what the Admin console lets each one do, and where their power ends.

The Admin item appears in the navigation only when the connected wallet holds a role. The console shows each role's actions and says why an action is unavailable.

Curator

1. 1Protocol parameters: Edit parameters, review the changes, then Set protocol parameters. The values apply only to the next published version.
2. 2Template versions: Publish the next version, which pins the current implementations and parameters; Deprecate a version so new launches can no longer use it. Existing launches keep theirs.
3. 3Quote asset: Whitelist a quote asset for versions published afterwards.

Attester

1. 1Vetoes lists every raise in Stage 1 with its latest report, its veto budget and its cooldown.
2. 2Enter a delay and Apply veto. A veto cites the latest report, lasts at most the per-veto maximum and must fit in the remaining budget.

Council

1. 1Under Vetoes, Clear veto lifts an active veto early. The budget already used is not restored.

Limits

• Parameters, versions and quote admission affect future launches only. No role can change a live launch.
• No role can move backers' funds, block an exit or spend from a treasury.
• A veto only delays graduation; it cannot reject a project that met its gates.
• API administrators can run the analyst on demand without the rate limit (Analysis, Run analysis now). This is an off-chain role.

RelatedRoles and their limitsGoverned timingsThe AI analyst

Stage 1 · Incubation

The project raises its first capital at a price set by a published curve, while every deposit waits in escrow.

What you can do

• Deposit USDG. You receive tokens at the curve price, which rises linearly with every token sold, so the last backer pays at most 1.5× what the first paid. Up to 20% of the supply is sold in this stage.
• Exit at cost at any time, in part or in full: you get back exactly what you paid for the tokens you return.
• Move your position into another project's Stage 1 in one transaction. See Rollover.
• Review the project: the builder's updates, the AI analyst's report and signed feedback from other backers.

What protects you

Your deposit stays in escrow, apart from every other balance. Nothing can be spent in Stage 1: no fees, no budgets and no token transfers. Your tokens are a ledger entry held by the protocol, so no one can open a pool before listing.

How it ends

• Graduation to Stage 2 at the deadline, if the whole Stage 1 allocation sold, which takes the price to the project's own target valuation (at least $100,000), and at least 10 backers other than the builder hold positions.
• Dissolution otherwise, or earlier if the builder dissolves the project after the Stage 1 minimum. Every position then claims its full cost. See Dissolution.
• The AI analyst may delay graduation within a fixed budget, but cannot prevent it. See The AI analyst.

Stage 2 · Series A buffer

Outside buyers can now trade against the protocol's book. The price starts at the final Stage 1 price and converges gradually on the price the project will list at.

What you can do

• Exit at cost at any time until listing, exactly as in Stage 1.
• Take a protected exit: your cost plus the elapsed share of your gain, paid only from real outside demand. See Exits.
• Vote on budget and treasury proposals with your contributed capital. See Treasury and voting.
• Outside buyers buy and sell in the book with a 1% fee. Their tokens stay in a ledger until listing and have no cost protection.

How the price moves

The book pairs real USDG from outside buyers with virtual depth that shrinks linearly over the stage. At the first moment the price is exactly the final Stage 1 price; at the last, exactly the price the pool will open at. In between it converges gradually, so a burst of speculation cannot run far ahead of real demand.

What protects you

Your cost stays in escrow and can be taken back at any time. Profit is never paid from other backers' principal: it comes only from the reserve that outside buyers funded. Without outside demand, there is no profit and no loss. On a Budget Launch, a budget that backers approved by vote can reduce your cost.

How it ends

Listing is mandatory at the Stage 2 deadline, whatever the demand. Anyone can execute it. If the call to the venue fails, the whole transaction reverts: cost exits stay open, and anyone can try again.

Stage 3 · Open market

The project lists on Uniswap v4. Protection ends, and ordinary market risk begins.

At listing

• The remaining escrow and the book's reserve become liquidity in a 1% Uniswap v4 pool, opened at the book's final price. The protocol locks this liquidity permanently; only its fees are collected, to the project treasury.
• Every backer and buyer receives their tokens as ordinary ERC-20 balances, automatically. There is nothing to claim.
• Team purchases move into vesting: a 30-day cliff, then linear release over three years.
• The 10% treasury allocation arrives in the project's treasury and starts to unlock.

What you can do

• Trade on the Markets page, or through any Uniswap v4 interface.
• Hold and receive the Diamond Hand stream: 30% of the supply, plus the rewards share of Stage 2 fees, released daily over three years to original backers in proportion to their reward quota.
• Vote on treasury proposals with your tokens.

Reward quota belongs to original backers' tokens. Any transfer or sale destroys the same amount of quota, and it never returns. Stage 2 buyers and team purchases carry no quota. Diamond Hand is an allocation, not a yield: amounts depend on activity and are never promised.

Launch types

Both types share the same stages, protections, treasury rules and fees. They differ in one thing: whether a voted budget may draw on the raise before listing.

Escrow Launch

The contract gives the builder no path to backers' funds. The team is paid the way a project on its own feet is paid: from the treasury, whose income is trading fees and a 10% token allocation that unlocks over five years, spent only by proposals that pass a vote; and from the product's own revenue.

Budget Launch

For teams that need capital before listing. The builder chooses a budget ceiling when creating the launch, and it is shown before anyone deposits. In Stage 2 each draw is a proposal that backers vote on with their capital; a draw that passes reduces every position's cost in proportion. Backers can still exit at cost during the vote and the dispute window, so no one is carried into a budget they reject.

Exits

Until listing, a backer can always leave. There are two ways out.

Exit at cost

Available in Stage 1, in Stage 2 and while listing is pending, for any part of a position. You receive exactly the cost of the tokens you return (your cost × tokens returned ÷ tokens held), with zero fees, and those tokens are burned. Votes, AI delays and failed listing attempts never block it.

Protected exit (Stage 2)

Backers can also leave with profit. The payout is your cost plus the elapsed share of your gain: if the book values your tokens above your cost, you receive that gain multiplied by the share of Stage 2 that has passed. Early in the stage you receive about your cost; near the end, about the full market value.

The profit is paid only from the real reserve that outside buyers funded, never from other backers' escrow. The book keeps only as many of your tokens as it needs to fund the profit; the rest are burned. Without outside demand, the profit is zero and you receive your cost.

Example: you paid 1,000 USDG. Halfway through Stage 2, the book would pay 1,400 USDG for your tokens. A protected exit pays up to 1,000 + 50% × 400 = 1,200 USDG, as far as the real reserve can fund it.

Stage 2 buyers are not backers: they sell back to the book at its price, with the 1% fee, and have no cost protection. Team purchases can exit at cost but take no profit.

Dissolution and rollover

A project that does not graduate is dissolved, and every position takes back its full cost.

Dissolution

• At the Stage 1 deadline, a project that has not met its gates is dissolved automatically.
• After the Stage 1 minimum, the builder may dissolve the project early.
• Every position then claims its exact remaining cost from the project's claim vault, at any time, with no deadline. An unclaimed position never blocks anyone else's claim.

Dissolution is a normal outcome of incubation. It ends the raise; it does not reduce anyone's claim.

Rollover

Capital can move between projects in one transaction. The rollover router exits your positions in projects that have not listed (at cost, or with protected profit in Stage 2) and takes your dissolution claims, adds an optional top-up from your wallet, deposits the total into another project's Stage 1 in your name, and returns anything unused.

Fees

Portex charges no protocol fee. Every fee a launch collects stays with that launch.

The reserve share deepens the book that funds protected exits. The reward and treasury shares are held in separate buckets and never mix with principal.

Treasury and voting

Every launch has its own treasury, created with it. Nothing leaves it without a proposal that passes a vote.

Where its money comes from

• The treasury share of Stage 2 trading fees.
• Fees earned by the protocol's locked liquidity after listing.
• Reward funds that can no longer be distributed.
• 10% of the token supply, which arrives at listing and unlocks on a straight line over five years (the production default). Locked tokens can never be spent.

Before listing: voting by capital

In Stage 2, proposals are voted by contributed capital, never by tokens: each backer position votes once, weighted by its cost. A proposal needs a quorum of 40% of eligible capital and 60% approval, and may spend at most 10% of the capital voting YES. Voting lasts three days; a passed proposal then waits through a seven-day dispute window, during which any backer can still exit at cost, and can be executed within the next two days. Exiting cancels that position's vote. One proposal runs at a time, and each new proposal comes at least one day after the previous one was made.

After listing: voting by tokens

In Stage 3, token holders vote with their balance at the end of the block in which the proposal was made, so borrowed tokens cannot sway it. A proposal passes with 60% of the votes cast, and its total value may not exceed 5% of the market value of the tokens voting YES, valued at the lower of the listing price and the current pool price. The builder's addresses cannot vote.

How the team is paid

An Escrow Launch team is paid by treasury budgets that pass a vote and by the product's own revenue. A Budget Launch team can also draw on the raise, by vote and within its cap, before listing. Neither receives free tokens.

The AI analyst

Every raise in Stage 1 is reviewed by an AI analyst that publishes a risk report on the project page. It has one power: it can delay.

• It may place a veto that delays graduation from Stage 1: at most two days per veto and seven days in total, with a one-day cooldown between vetoes, and never beyond the Stage 1 maximum.
• It cannot approve a launch, reject one that met its gates, or touch any funds.
• Cost exits stay open during a delay.
• The council can lift a veto early. The delay budget already used is not restored.
• The builder can respond publicly to every report.

Roles and their limits

A few addresses have narrow roles, pinned into every launch. None can change a live launch or move backers' funds.

Each launch pins its code, parameters, quote asset and roles when it is created. No one, including the curator, can upgrade a live launch.

Governed timings

Stage lengths and governance windows are protocol parameters. The curator sets them for future versions only; each version pins its values, and every launch keeps the values of its version.

The table compares the production defaults with the values a new launch on this network pins today, read live from the current template version.

The builder picks each launch's stage lengths within these bounds, and they are fixed before the first deposit. On testnet the timings are shortened so a whole lifecycle can be seen in a day; the contracts are identical, and only the governed parameters differ. Production launches use the production defaults.

Markets and trading

After listing, each project trades in its own Uniswap v4 pool.

• The Markets page lists every project in Stage 3 · Open market with its price, 24-hour change and volume, pool liquidity and FDV (price × total supply).
• Each project's trading page shows its whole price history in candles from one minute to one day: the Stage 2 book, the listing moment and the pool.
• Swaps are exact-input and go through the Portex swap router in one transaction. The panel shows a live quote from the pool, the price impact, the pool fee and the minimum you will receive under your slippage tolerance (1% by default). If the price moves beyond it before your transaction confirms, nothing is exchanged.
• Your first trade of each asset asks you to approve the router.
• Selling tokens that carry reward quota destroys the same amount of quota.
• The pool is an ordinary Uniswap v4 pool, so other interfaces can trade it too. Its listing liquidity is locked permanently.

Connect to X Layer testnet

Portex runs on X Layer testnet with a test quote asset. Your wallet needs this network and a little test OKB for gas.

• When you press Connect wallet, the app asks your wallet to switch to X Layer testnet, and to add it if it is missing. You can also add it by hand with the values above.
• Get test OKB for gas from the OKX X Layer faucet.
• TEST USDG is a freely mintable faucet token with 6 decimals, like USDG. It has no monetary value and is never real USDG. When your balance is empty, the deposit and trade panels, and an empty Portfolio, offer to mint 10,000 TEST USDG in one transaction.
• Testnet launches can use shortened timings, so a project can go from Stage 1 to the open market in less than an hour. See Governed timings.

Deployed contracts

Every contract this app uses on the current network, read from the deployment record. Copy an address, or open it in the block explorer.

The implementations are the code every new launch is cloned from; each launch pins them, with its parameters, through the bundle hash of its template version.

Pools run on a Uniswap v4 PoolManager deployed from the unmodified v4.0.0 release. Liquidity added at listing is owned by each raise through the adapter and can never be withdrawn.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers; each links to the section with the details.

Can I lose my deposit?

Not before listing on an Escrow Launch: you can exit at your exact cost at any time until the listing transaction. On a Budget Launch, a draw that backers approved by vote reduces every position's cost in proportion. After listing, your tokens carry ordinary market risk. See Exits.

What happens if nobody buys in Stage 2?

The project still lists at the end of Stage 2. Without outside demand there is no profit: a protected exit pays your cost, and at listing your tokens become tradable at the book's final price.

Why can't I transfer my tokens before listing?

No one can, so no one can open a pool early and graduate a project around the protocol. Until listing, backers can exit at cost and Stage 2 buyers can sell back to the book.

Who decides when a project lists?

The calendar. Listing is due at the Stage 2 deadline chosen before the first deposit, and anyone can execute it.

Can the team take the money and leave?

On an Escrow Launch, the contract gives the team no path to the raise. On a Budget Launch, only draws that backers approved by vote, within the disclosed cap. Treasury funds move only through proposals that pass a vote.

Does the AI decide which projects succeed?

No. The analyst can only delay Stage 1 within a fixed budget. It cannot approve, reject or touch funds. See The AI analyst.

Are Diamond Hand rewards a yield?

No. They are an allocation of tokens and fee revenue that streams to original backers who keep their tokens. Amounts depend on activity and are never promised.

Where do the fees go?

To the launch itself: its reserve, its rewards and its treasury. Portex charges no protocol fee. See Fees.

What is FDV?

Fully diluted value: the current price multiplied by the total token supply.

Can a launch be changed after I deposit?

No. Its code, parameters and roles are pinned when it is created. New versions apply only to new launches.

Where can I check the contracts?

Every address is listed in Deployed contracts, with a link to the block explorer.

Glossary

The terms used across Portex, in plain words.

Backer

Anyone who deposited in Stage 1. A backer position has a cost that can be exited until listing.

Book

The protocol's market in Stage 2: real USDG from outside buyers plus virtual depth that shrinks over the stage.

Builder

The team that created the launch.

Cost

What a position paid for its remaining tokens; on a Budget Launch, after any voted draws.

Diamond Hand

The reward stream for original backers who keep their tokens: 30% of supply plus the rewards share of Stage 2 fees, released daily over three years.

Dissolution

The end of a project that does not graduate from Stage 1. Every position claims its full cost.

Escrow

Where deposits wait until listing, apart from every other balance.

Exit at cost

Leaving a position and receiving exactly its cost, with zero fees.

FDV

Fully diluted value: price × total supply.

Listing

The transaction that ends Stage 2: it opens the Uniswap v4 pool, locks its liquidity and delivers every token.

Protected exit

A Stage 2 exit that pays your cost plus the elapsed share of your gain, funded only by outside demand.

Quorum

The share of eligible capital that must vote for a Stage 2 proposal to count: 40%.

Reward quota

The part of an original backer's tokens that earns Diamond Hand rewards. Transfers and sales destroy it.

Rollover

Moving positions and dissolution claims into another project's Stage 1 in one transaction.

Slippage tolerance

How far below the quoted amount a swap may settle before it is cancelled.

Test USDG

A freely mintable test token on X Layer testnet, with no monetary value.

Treasury

A launch's own vault for its fees and its 10% token allocation. It pays only through proposals that pass a vote.

Veto

A delay the AI analyst may place on graduation from Stage 1, within a fixed budget.

Bundle hash

The fingerprint of a template version: its implementations, parameters and roles. Every launch records the one it was created with; see Deployed contracts.