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What It Is

Upside is a principal-protectedPrincipal ProtectionStructural guarantee that investors can always redeem their deposited collateral via the perpetual PUT. Proportional to reserve backing, not a fixed dollar guarantee. token fundraising protocol. Projects sell a portion of their token supply at a defined valuation, with built-in principal protectionPrincipal ProtectionStructural guarantee that investors can always redeem their deposited collateral via the perpetual PUT. Proportional to reserve backing, not a fixed dollar guarantee. for every investor.

A project says: “We are selling 30% of our token supply at a $50M valuation.” Investors depositDepositThe action of investing collateral into a raise. The raise contract receives collateral, routes it to the yield strategy, and mints a pFT position NFT. A live oracle price feed determines USD notional for FT allocation via deposit-time conversion. capital. That capital goes into yield-generatingYield StrategyProtocol used to generate yield on deposited capital. Aave V3 is the only supported strategy at launch. Yield funds the platform fee and the project ecosystem budget. If buyback is enabled, yield surplus can also fund buyback and burn. reservesReserveThe pool of collateral backing investor positions in a raise. Under normal conditions, each investor's proportional share equals their original deposit. In a shortfall, proportional settlement distributes what remains fairly. Reserve accounting is per-raise (isolated). that back a perpetual PUTPerpetual PUTA perpetual exit right attached to every investor position. No expiry, no approval required, no dependency on the project team. Exercised via redeem. right on each position. Investors can always get their money back by exercising their PUT, no expiry, no extra approval.

The platform also supports token generation events (TGEs), where a project launches and distributes tokens for the first time.

There is no platform token and no staking requirement.

Why It Exists

Crypto fundraising has a trust problem. Projects raise capital and investors hope the token holds value. When it doesn’t, investors lose everything.

Upside is designed so principal protectionPrincipal ProtectionStructural guarantee that investors can always redeem their deposited collateral via the perpetual PUT. Proportional to reserve backing, not a fixed dollar guarantee. is structural, not social. DepositedDepositThe action of investing collateral into a raise. The raise contract receives collateral, routes it to the yield strategy, and mints a pFT position NFT. A live oracle price feed determines USD notional for FT allocation via deposit-time conversion. capital is held in reserveReserveThe pool of collateral backing investor positions in a raise. Under normal conditions, each investor's proportional share equals their original deposit. In a shortfall, proportional settlement distributes what remains fairly. Reserve accounting is per-raise (isolated)., routed into yield strategiesYield StrategyProtocol used to generate yield on deposited capital. Aave V3 is the only supported strategy at launch. Yield funds the platform fee and the project ecosystem budget. If buyback is enabled, yield surplus can also fund buyback and burn., and remains redeemableRedeemExercise principal protection and exit to collateral. Implemented by the divest contract function. Permissionless and on-chain. on-chain.

For projects, this is a credibility signal: “We are confident enough to offer structural downside protection.” For investors, it removes most project-token downside while preserving upside exposure.

How It Works (Lifecycle Overview)

1

Configure

Project sets token, price, collateral, and cap

2

Deposit

Investors deposit collateral into the raise

3

Deploy

Capital deployed to yield strategy

4

Yield

Funds platform fee and project treasury (with optional buyback/burn)

5

Exit

Investors choose how to exit their position

Investor chooses one

Hold

Keep position, maintain upside exposure

or

Redeem

Get collateral back via PUT

or

Withdraw

Claim project tokens

At every stage, investors retain the right to exit to their collateral via the PUT mechanism. This right is perpetual, permissionless, and on-chain.

Who This Is For

Projects

• Teams launching initial token distribution at a defined valuation
• Existing protocols running structured additional rounds
• Teams signaling confidence through principal-protection mechanics
• Projects that want optional built-in tokenomics (yieldYieldReturns generated by the yield strategy on deposited collateral. Variable, not guaranteed. Distributed via the yield waterfall: platform fee (10%) to DAO, then net yield (90%) to the project.-funded buyback/burnBuyback and BurnOptional mechanism where released capital from withdraws and yield surplus can be used to buy back and burn project tokens, reducing circulating supply. Enabled by the raise creator at raise creation.) configured at raise creation

Investors

• Institutions requiring downside controls
• Funds and VCs preferring transparent on-chain raise structures
• Retail users seeking raise participation with principal-protection behavior
• DeFi users who value secondary market liquidity for position tokens

Reading Paths

Evaluating a raise as an investor

1. 1
   Guarantees What is and isn't protected
2. 2
   Investing and Positions How deposits and positions work
3. 3
   Hold, Redeem, and Withdraw Your three actions
4. 4
   Risk Model What can go wrong

Setting up a raise as a project

1. 1
   Raise Setup and Configuration How to configure a raise
2. 2
   Capital Lifecycle Where capital goes and how the optional buyback/burn works
3. 3
   Yield Strategy How yield is generated and routed
4. 4
   Fees and Economics Platform fee model

Integrating or auditing as a developer

1. 1
   Contract Map Architecture and contract responsibilities
2. 2
   Formula Reference On-chain math
3. 3
   Roles and Permissions Access control model
4. 4
   State, Events, and Interfaces Key state variables and terminology