Quickstart

Open the app, connect a wallet, mint your first paired position - all in the browser. No code required.

Continuum’s full UX lives at continuum.markets. You can browse markets, mint and redeem at NAV, trade individual legs, and track your portfolio - all from the app, with a Solana wallet you already use.

This page walks you through it. No code, no CLI. If you want the programmatic flow, jump to Mint and redeem example.

1. Open the app

   Go to continuum.markets. The default network is devnet, marked clearly in the top bar. You can mainnet-toggle when mainnet launches; until then everything is testnet money.

2. Connect a wallet

   Click Connect in the top right. The app supports any Solana wallet via Wallet Adapter:

   • Phantom
   • Backpack
   • Solflare
   • Glow, Trust, and others

   Make sure your wallet is set to Devnet (Phantom: Settings → Developer Settings → Change Network → Devnet).

   First-time wallets may need a SOL airdrop for transaction fees. The wallet apps usually expose a one-click devnet airdrop; alternatively run solana airdrop 2 from a terminal.

3. Get cUSDC from the faucet

   Continuum’s devnet collateral is cUSDC - a custom test mint at B1c5xBYkp7AAemYhcu4VuH4CU4sPJDDuG2iuv6ts38uE. The app has a built-in faucet at /faucet.

   Hit Drip cUSDC. After one transaction your wallet holds 1,000 cUSDC. The faucet has a per-recipient cooldown - if you need more, come back in a few minutes or use a fresh wallet.

   cUSDC has 6 decimals. The minimum mint per market is 10 cUSDC.

4. Browse live markets

   Open /pools. Four markets are live on devnet:

   • QQQ - Nasdaq-100 ETF
   • SPY - SPDR S&P 500 ETF
   • XAU - Gold spot
   • VXX - VIX short-term futures ETN

   Each market shows live NAV (from the on-chain TWAP), each side’s pool price and deviation vs NAV, instant book depth, and risk state. Click into one for a TradingView-style chart with NAV overlay, buy/sell prices per side, and the trade panel.

5. Mint a paired position

   On any market page, the right side has a Mint / Redeem panel. Switch to Mint, enter an amount of cUSDC (try 100), and confirm.

   The preview shows you exactly what you’ll receive:

   Deposit:    100.00 cUSDC
   Mint fee:   0.10 cUSDC (10 bps)
   You get:    0.10406 QQQL (long)
               49.95   QQQS (short)
   

   Approve in your wallet. The transaction takes ~1 second to confirm. Your wallet now holds matched long and short tokens, fully prepaid - no margin, no liquidations.

6. View your portfolio

   Open /portfolio. Every Continuum position you hold is listed with:

   • Live NAV-based valuation
   • Per-leg balances (long and short)
   • Net P&L vs your mint cost
   • One-click links to redeem or trade each leg

   The portfolio tracks every market you’ve touched. Long and short balances persist across sessions because they’re SPL tokens in your wallet, not protocol-side state.

7. Express direction (optional)

   Paired positions have near-zero local delta - they appreciate slightly only on large moves either way. To go directional, sell one of the legs:

   • Long-only QQQ: from the market page, hit Trade and swap your QQQS for cUSDC. You’re now holding QQQL + cUSDC, fully delta-positive.
   • Short-only QQQ: same idea, sell QQQL instead.

   Trades happen on Continuum’s own per-side books (the protocol is the sole LP). Small trades fill instantly; above ~$5k the app auto-switches to a committed order that fills at the next oracle print at NAV ± 0.10% - any size, no slippage.

8. Redeem at NAV

   When you want to exit, head back to Mint / Redeem and switch to Redeem. Continuum’s redeem is NAV-weighted, not quantity-paired - you can burn long-only, short-only, or asymmetric pairs. Whatever you burn returns its NAV value in cUSDC, minus a 10 bps redeem fee.

   A full round-trip mint+redeem at unchanged NAV nets ~20 bps in protocol fees. Anything between is your directional or convexity P&L.

What else is in the app

Page	What it does
/pools	Live market grid - prices, depth, OI, risk. Drill into any market.
/mint and /redeem	Standalone mint and redeem flows if you don’t want the per-market view.
/portfolio	Position tracker, NAV-based P&L, quick exit links.
/faucet	Devnet cUSDC drip.
/learn and /guide	Concept primers - paired tokens, NAV, what’s actually happening on chain.
/compare	Side-by-side market comparison (depth, fees, IV regime).
/governance	CNTM staking and proposals. Scaffolded, not yet active.
/earn	Yield-deployment surface. Disabled in MVP.

Watching the keeper work

You can see the protocol’s market-making in real time. On any market detail page:

• NAV line moves with Pyth observations (~15 s cadence).
• Book price is re-pinned to NAV whenever drift exceeds the per-market gate (0.20-0.40%).
• Bin distribution shows the book’s standing asks and bids around NAV.

During US market hours the book hugs NAV; overnight and on weekends the oracle goes quiet and the book floats at its standing band - that’s by design, and the first fresh print re-anchors it. All the liquidity you see is operator-funded; the protocol is the sole LP.

Wallet metadata

Long and short SPL mints have full Metaplex metadata (name, symbol, image), so wallets like Phantom display them as e.g. “QQQ Long” with the Continuum logo - not random token addresses. Same for cUSDC.

If your wallet doesn’t show the icons immediately, give it a refresh - some wallets cache token metadata for an hour.

When to use the app vs the SDK

The app covers ~95% of what most users (and many builders) need:

• One-off mints and redeems
• Trading individual legs (instant or committed)
• Watching live NAV + risk state
• Portfolio P&L
• Donating to vault for fee waivers (advanced)
• Voluntary burn (advanced)

Drop to the SDK when you need to:

• Automate flows (bots, schedulers, structured products)
• Build a custom UI on top of Continuum
• Integrate via CPI from another on-chain program
• Run your own arb bot or alternative keeper

Both are fully supported. The on-chain protocol is the same - the app is just a polished client over it.

Where next

Concepts

Why paired tokens, what NAV means, how the keeper works.

Devnet info

Cluster, RPCs, addresses, gotchas.

Build on Continuum

TypeScript SDK setup, IDLs, end-to-end script examples.

Composability

Long-only wrappers, arb bots, structured products, CPI integrations.