Providing Liquidity
Your first LP position on Orbit Finance, step by step.
What you need
Solana wallet
Phantom, Solflare, or Backpack. Anything that supports Solana.
Tokens to deposit
Both sides of the pair. For CIPHER/USDC you need some of each.
SOL for gas
About 0.01 SOL covers transaction fees. Keep a small buffer.
Step 1: Pick a pool
Go to markets.cipherlabsx.com and check what’s available. Look at:
- 24h Volume tells you how active the pool is. More volume = more fees for you.
- Fee rate is what gets charged per swap. Higher fee = more per trade.
- TVL shows total liquidity. If it’s low, your share of fees will be bigger.
Step 2: Set your price range
You pick how many bins to cover. This is the most important decision.
| Range | Bins | Covers roughly | Fees | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tight | 10-15 bins | ±2-3% from current price | High per dollar | Out of range quickly |
| Medium | 20-30 bins | ±5-8% from current price | Good balance | Stays in range longer |
| Wide | 50+ bins | ±15%+ from current price | Lower per dollar | Very stable |
First time? Go with 20-30 bins around the current price. That’s roughly ±5% coverage, which works well for most pairs.
Step 3: Pick your strategy
Concentrated
Most capital near the current price. Best when you think price will stay calm.
Uniform
Even spread across all bins. Simple, predictable, hard to mess up.
Skew Bid
Heavier on the buy side. Good if you want to accumulate tokens on dips.
Skew Ask
Heavier on the sell side. Good for gradually taking profit as price rises.
Step 4: Deposit
Enter your token amounts and confirm. If you’re filling more than 32 bins, you’ll need to sign 2 transactions (the program batches them automatically).
Once confirmed, you’re live and earning fees right away.
After you deposit
Rebalancing
If price drifts outside your range, withdraw and re-deposit around the new price. Don't rebalance on every small move though.
Checking performance
The Orbit Console shows your bins, fees earned, and whether you're in range.
When to exit
Price moved far away and isn't coming back? Take your fees and redeploy somewhere else.
Impermanent loss
Quick reality check: concentrated LP amplifies impermanent loss. The tighter your range, the worse IL gets when price moves.
| Price move | Traditional AMM IL | Concentrated (10-bin) IL |
|---|---|---|
| ±10% | -0.11% | ~-1.1% |
| ±20% | -0.45% | ~-4.5% |
| ±50% | -2.02% | ~-20% |
The key number is net PnL = fees earned minus IL. If your fees are beating IL, you’re profitable. Track this over time, not just fees alone.
Earn on top of LP fees
Stake $CIPHER to earn protocol fees from every pool. No LP management required.
Learn about $CIPHER staking →