Rules

Every rule, with its number.

What happens to your tokens and the vault's SOL, step by step. The engine enforces exactly these.

Launching a coin

A coin launches on pump.fun from the creator's own wallet. The creator signs two transactions: the pump.fun create (with an optional dev buy) and the fee-share setup, with the optional vault seed, the launch fee and the memo pawn:v1:launch:<coin>.
pump.fun creator fees are split on chain, fixed: the coin's pawn vault 60%, the creator 30%, PAWN 10%. The coin goes live only after the exact split is verified on chain.
The creator picks a loan rate of 10% to 30% (default 20%). It can't change after launch. Dev buy and vault seed are each up to 10 SOL; the launch fee is 0.02 SOL.

Each coin has its own vault, a wallet held by the PAWN keeper. Its SOL comes from the coin's creator fees, the creator's seed (if any), and the redemption and extension fees holders pay.
The keeper runs pump.fun's permissionless fee distribution (memo pawn:v1:distribute:<mint>) every few minutes once at least 0.01 SOL is pending, so the vault's share arrives on its own.
The vault keeps 0.02 SOL for network fees. Cash is its balance minus that reserve and minus SOL already owed (loans being sent, refunds). Capital is cash plus the SOL lent out.

A pawn quote is the tokens you pawn times the live price times the coin's loan rate. The live price is the bonding curve's spot price, or the PumpSwap pool's once the coin graduated, read at the moment you ask. A quote holds for 60 seconds.
To pawn you sign ONE transaction: a transfer of exactly the quoted tokens from your token account to the vault's, with the memo pawn:v1:pawn:<ticket>. It counts only after it is verified on chain (confirmed, you are the fee payer, exactly that transfer and memo). A transfer that lands more than 20 seconds after the quote expired is returned.
Before the loan the price and every limit are checked again. If the same tokens are now worth more than 1% less, or a limit no longer fits, no loan is made and your tokens are returned (pawn:v1:return:<ticket>). Otherwise the vault sends your locked loan, never more, with the memo pawn:v1:loan:<ticket>.

Days are UTC days.
The vault keeps at least 30% of its capital in cash: SOL lent out may be at most 70% of capital, including the new loan.
Per wallet, per coin, per day: new loans up to 5% of vault capital (live quotes count).
Keeper caps: at most 5 SOL per loan and 250 SOL of loans per day across every vault.
A request over any limit is refused at quote time, with the most you can borrow right now.

A ticket is due 7 days after its loan lands. Until then you can redeem: one SOL transfer of exactly the loan plus 5% into the vault, memo pawn:v1:redeem:<ticket>, signed by the wallet that pawned. Once it is verified on chain the vault releases exactly the pawned tokens (pawn:v1:release:<ticket>).
Once per ticket you can extend: a transfer of exactly 5% of the loan, memo pawn:v1:extend:<ticket>, before due. The due time moves 7 days later.
A redemption or extension payment that lands more than 20 seconds after due is refunded in SOL (pawn:v1:refund:<kind>:<ticket>). Before forfeiting any ticket the keeper scans the vault for a redemption that was paid but never reported.

If a ticket is not redeemed by due (plus 20 seconds), it is forfeited. The vault burns exactly the pawned tokens with BurnChecked on the token's own program (memo pawn:v1:burn:<ticket>). The vault never sells them.
You keep the loan. The vault's loss is the loan; the supply goes down for every holder. This cannot be undone.

Loans, releases, burns, returns and refunds run automatically. The operator has a kill switch (off), a review mode that holds each loan for approval on mainnet (the price is checked again at approval), and a per-coin pause (no new quotes; redemptions still release).
Vault keys are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and opened for one signature at a time. Every keeper transaction passes a guard: allowed programs per transaction type, exact transfers and memos, capped amounts. Each transfer is recorded before it is sent and checked against the chain before any resend, so nothing is paid twice.

PAWN is a creator-fee-funded vault feature, not a bank, a lender of record or credit. Pawn loans come from creator fees while vault capacity lasts; unredeemed bags are burned. PAWN does not set, support or predict a price. Memecoins can go to zero. Nothing here is financial advice. Not affiliated with pump.fun.