Bidder's Guide
Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCAs) provide a fair, transparent way to participate in token sales. This guide explains how to bid, what to expect, and how to claim your tokens.
Bidder's Guide
Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCAs) provide a fair, transparent way to participate in token sales. This guide explains how to bid, what to expect, and how to claim your tokens.
What is a CCA?
A Continuous Clearing Auction is a fully on-chain token sale mechanism that discovers fair market prices through transparent bidding.
Key features:
Your bid automatically splits across remaining auction blocks, proportional to supply
Clearing prices rise as the auction progresses
Everyone in a block pays the same clearing price
All bids and prices are visible on-chain
Why CCAs are fair:
No timing games or sniping
Early participation is rewarded with lower prices
Large orders can't dominate individual blocks
Front-running is unprofitable
Learn more about the CCA mechanism from Uniswap.
How to Participate
Step 1: Connect and Verify
Navigate to the project's sale page and connect your wallet.
Step 2: Review Auction Details
Check the critical parameters:
Auction duration: How long the auction runs (e.g., 7 days)
Floor price: Minimum price set by the project
Bid currency: USDC, USDT, or ETH
Step 3: Place Your Bid
Enter two values:
Total budget: The total amount you want to spend (e.g., $10,000 USDC)
Max price: The highest price per token you're willing to pay (e.g., $1.00)
Your bid automatically splits across all remaining auction blocks, proportional to how tokens are distributed in each block.
Example:
Total budget: $10,000
Max price: $1.00 per token
Remaining blocks: 20
Your bid = $500 per block (10,000 ÷ 20)
If clearing price ≤ $1.00 → Your bid succeeds (you're "in range")
If clearing price > $1.00 → Your bid fails (you're "out of range")
Complete required KYC verification.
Step 4: Monitor the Auction
Watch as blocks clear in real-time. The Tally interface shows:
Which blocks your bid succeed in
The clearing price for each block
Your current token allocation
How much of your budget remains in future blocks
Step 5: Wait for Auction to End
Once the auction ends, the Tally interface will guide you through claiming your tokens and any refunds.
Understanding "In Range" vs "Out of Range"
This is the most important concept for how CCAs work.
Your bid is "in range" when:
Your max price is at or above the current clearing price
Your bid is actively competing for tokens in each block
Your funds are locked in the auction contract
Your bid is "out of range" when:
Your max price falls below the clearing price
Your bid becomes invalid for all remaining blocks
This happens automatically when the clearing price exceeds your max
Why this matters
All bids start "in range." You can only submit a bid if your max price is above the current clearing price. Once your bid is submitted, it remains in the auction until:
You get outbid (clearing price rises above your max price), OR
The auction ends
{% hint style="info" %} Clearing prices rise over time in CCAs. If you set a limit order, your bid will start "in range" (early blocks with lower prices) and may eventually go "out of range" (later blocks with higher prices). This design prevents gaming and ensures all participants are making credible commitments. {% endhint %}
Key insight: While your bid is "in range," your funds are committed to the auction. You can't withdraw until the auction ends or you go "out of range" (get outbid). This prevents last-minute manipulation and ensures everyone's bids are real commitments.
How Tally Simplifies the Experience
Uniswap's CCA smart contracts are powerful but technically complex. Tally's interface abstracts this complexity.
What Tally handles automatically:
Exit calculations and determining the correct exit function
Tracking which blocks you participated in and your outcomes
Refund calculations from unsuccessful blocks
Clearing price calculations
What you see:
Live clearing price
Clear progress through the auction
Real-time allocation updates
Exit auction button and "Claim Allocation" button when the auction ends
What happens behind the scenes:
Complex exit logic for partially filled bids
Checkpoint hint calculations
Pro-rata share computations
Multi-step claim processes
You get a smooth, intuitive experience while the full security and transparency of Uniswap's on-chain auction runs underneath.
Bidding Strategies
Understanding Bidding Modes
Tally's CCA interface offers two ways to bid: Advanced and Simple (Market Orders). Understanding both helps you choose the right strategy.
Advanced
What it is: You specify both your total budget AND the maximum price you're willing to pay.
How it works:
Total budget: $10,000
Max price: $1.00 per token
For each block:
If clearing price ≤ $1.00 → Your bid succeeds
If clearing price > $1.00 → Your bid fails
Best for:
You have a clear valuation for the token
You want price protection over guaranteed allocation
You'd rather get fewer tokens at good prices than many tokens at any price
Simple (Market Orders)
What it is: You specify only your total budget. The interface automatically sets your max price very high to essentially guarantee participation in all blocks.
How it works:
Total budget: $10,000
Max price: Auto-set to $10.00 (or higher)
You participate in all blocks and pay the actual clearing price (not the high maximum).
{% hint style="info" %} You don't actually pay the high maximum. You pay the market-determined clearing price for each block. The high maximum just ensures your bid succeeds. {% endhint %}
Best for:
You want to participate and trust the market to find fair prices
Allocation certainty matters more than price control
You're buying for long-term utility, not short-term trading
You don't want to guess at the "right" maximum price
You're bidding at low volume
Example: You place a market order for $10,000 when 20 blocks remain. Your bid automatically splits: $500 per block ($10,000 ÷ 20)
Block 1 clears at $0.85 → You spend $500, get ~588 tokens
Block 2 clears at $0.92 → You spend $500, get ~543 tokens
Block 3 clears at $1.05 → You spend $500, get ~476 tokens
...
Block 20 clears at $1.30 → You spend $500, get ~385 tokens
Total: $10,000 spent across all blocks. All blocks succeed because your auto-set max ($10.00) is well above clearing prices. Your final allocation depends on the actual clearing prices across all 20 blocks.
Placing Multiple Bids
You can place multiple separate bids during the auction.
When you might place another bid:
Your first bid has gone "out of range" (clearing price exceeded your max)
You want to add more capital to the auction
You want to bid at a different max price
How multiple bids work:
Each bid you place is independent and splits across all remaining blocks. If you place multiple bids, they stack in each block.
Important to understand:
Each bid tracks independently whether it's in range or out of range
Multiple bids from the same address combine in each block
You can't modify an existing bid. You can only place additional new bids
Each new bid splits across all remaining blocks from when you place it
What You Can and Cannot Do
✅ You CAN:
Place additional new bids at any time during the auction
Place multiple bids with different max prices
Monitor clearing prices and your allocations in real-time
❌ You CANNOT:
Cancel or withdraw a bid that is "in range" (actively participating)
Modify an existing bid's max price or amount
Claim tokens before the auction ends
Understanding Partial Fills
Your bid will likely not succeed in every block, and that's completely normal.
Why some blocks fail:
The clearing price exceeded your maximum price
Your bid was "out of range" for those blocks
{% hint style="info" %} The CCA mechanism is designed so that clearing prices rise as the auction progresses. Early blocks typically have lower clearing prices. Later blocks typically have higher clearing prices. If you set a max price, you're more likely to succeed in early blocks and fail in later blocks. {% endhint %}
Example scenario:
You bid $10,000 across 20 blocks at $1.00 max price
Block clearing prices (rising over time):
Blocks 1-8: $0.70-$0.95 → 8 successful blocks (in range)
Blocks 9-12: $1.05-$1.15 → 4 failed blocks (out of range, above your max)
Blocks 13-20: $1.18-$1.30 → 8 failed blocks (out of range, prices continued rising)
Result:
8 successful blocks out of 20 (mostly early blocks)
Spent: 8 × $500 = $4,000
Refunded: 12 × $500 = $6,000
Key takeaway: Partial fills are a feature of price discovery. With limit orders, you typically succeed in early blocks (lower prices) and may fail in later blocks (higher prices). This is by design. You get exposure at the prices you're comfortable with.
How Prices Are Determined
Clearing Price
Each block's clearing price is where supply meets demand for that specific block.
How it works:
The auction collects all bids for a block
Bids are ordered from highest max price to lowest
Starting from the top, bids are filled until the block's token supply is exhausted
The clearing price is set where supply runs out
Everyone whose max price is at or above the clearing price succeeds and pays the clearing price.
Why prices rise over time
The CCA mechanism is designed so clearing prices increase as the auction progresses. This happens because:
Bids are spread across all remaining blocks
As blocks clear, there are fewer remaining blocks for the same bid amounts
This concentrates demand in later blocks, pushing prices up
Early bidders benefit from lower prices (incentivizing early participation)
Example:
Block supply: 1,000 tokens
Bids for this block:
Bidder A: $600 budget, $1.20 max
Bidder B: $800 budget, $1.00 max
Bidder C: $400 budget, $0.95 max
Bidder D: $500 budget, $0.90 max
Result:
Clearing price: $1.00
A pays $1.00/token (not $1.20), gets 600 tokens
B pays $1.00/token, gets 400 tokens (partial fill)
C and D fail (max prices below $1.00)
Key insights:
You never pay more than the clearing price, even if your max was higher
Everyone who succeeds pays the same clearing price
Bidders right at the clearing price may get partial fills
Clearing prices typically rise over time (early blocks = lower prices)
Your Token Allocation
Per block:
Example:
Your bid per block: $500
Clearing price: $0.85
Tokens received = $500 ÷ $0.85 = 588.24 tokens
Total allocation: Sum the tokens from all successful blocks.
When the Auction Ends
Claiming Your Allocation
Wait for the auction to end. The auction must complete all blocks.
The Tally interface shows your final allocation:
Total tokens you received
Average price you paid
Total amount spent
Refunds from unsuccessful blocks
Click Claim Allocation.
Tally handles the complex exit logic automatically
Your tokens transfer to your wallet (or to a vesting contract if applicable)
Any refunds for unsuccessful blocks are included
You're done.
Key Concepts
Uniform Pricing
Everyone who successfully bids in a block pays the same clearing price.
If you bid $1.50 max and the block clears at $0.90, you pay $0.90
This incentivizes you to bid your true valuation
Bid Splitting
Your bid automatically divides evenly across all remaining blocks when you place it.
Prevents large orders from dominating single blocks
Enables continuous price discovery
Each portion uses your maximum price
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