The strategy

Concentrated liquidity, briefly#

On a traditional AMM, your liquidity is spread evenly across every possible price — from zero to infinity — so most of it never gets used. Concentrated liquidity (CL) lets you place your liquidity in a chosen price rangeinstead. Because it's focused where trading actually happens, each dollar earns far more fees and emissions while the price is inside that range.

The trade-off: liquidity only works insidethe range. If the price leaves the range, the position stops earning until it's back. Managing that range is exactly what the Topaz strategy automates.

The range#

A CL pool divides the price axis into discrete steps called ticks. A vault's range is defined by a position width measured in tick-spacings on either side of the current price:

range half-width  ≈  (1.0001 ^ (positionWidth × tickSpacing)) − 1

# Example: positionWidth = 10, tickSpacing = 50
#   1.0001 ^ (10 × 50) = 1.0001 ^ 500 ≈ 1.051  →  about ±5%

A wider width is a wider, safer band that needs fewer adjustments but earns less per dollar; a narrower width earns more but drifts out of range sooner. Each vault publishes its current range on its page — read it there rather than assuming a fixed percentage, since widths are tuned per vault.

The main + alt design#

Here's the key idea, and the part that surprises people: when the strategy deploys your tokens, it does not swap them to force a perfect 50/50 ratio. Swapping to balance would cost fees and slippage and leak value on every deposit and rebalance. Instead, it maintains two positions:

• Main position — a two-sided range centered on the current price. It takes as much of both tokens as it can in the correct ratio. This is where the bulk of the liquidity and earnings sit.
• Alt position — after the main is filled, one token is usually left over (the pool ratio rarely matches the position exactly). Rather than swap that remainder, the strategy keeps it working in a second position — the alt — built from that leftover token, instead of letting it sit idle.

As the price moves, the split between main and alt shifts. A healthy vault keeps most of its value in the main range; if a lot of value ends up in the alt, that's a signal the position needs re-centering.

Earning: fees + TOPAZ emissions#

The position earns from two sources while it's in range:

• Trading feesfrom swaps that route through the position's range.
• TOPAZ emissions.The strategy stakes its liquidity position in the pool's gauge (a CLGauge), which streams TOPAZ rewards to staked liquidity. Because the vault concentrates liquidity, it earns more emissions per dollar in range than an equivalent full-range position would.

Auto-compounding (harvest)#

Periodically the strategy harvests: it claims the accrued TOPAZ, takes the fees (see Fees & yield), converts the remaining rewards into the vault's two tokens, and adds them back into the position. This is the compounding step — earnings become principal, which then earns more.

Harvesting is permissionless: a keeper bot normally triggers it on a schedule, but anyone can call it, and the caller earns a small call fee as an incentive to keep vaults compounding. You never need to claim or restake anything yourself.

Rebalancing (re-centering)#

When the price drifts far enough from the center of the range, the strategy rebalances: it withdraws the liquidity and redeploys it as a fresh main + alt centered on the new price. This keeps your liquidity productive instead of stranded at the edge of an old range.

Rebalances happen automatically. There can be brief out-of-range windows between the price moving and the next rebalance — normal, and why the in-range badge is live.

The calm check (anti-MEV guard)#

Before any deposit, zap-in, or rebalance, the strategy checks that the market is calm: it compares the pool's instant (spot) price against its recent time-weighted average price (TWAP). If the two have diverged too far — a sign of a sharp move or a price manipulation attempt — the action reverts and is blocked until things settle.

This protects depositors and the vault from being picked off at a manipulated price (a class of MEV/sandwich attacks). In the app it shows up as deposits being momentarily unavailable with a “market volatile” message.

The keeper & controls#

A keeper automates the routine work — harvesting on a cadence and re-centering when needed. Both actions are permissionless: a keeper runs them on schedule, but anyone can trigger a harvest or a re-center (they still only succeed when the market is calm and the vault isn't paused). A factory contract holds protocol-level controls (the keeper address, the fee recipient, and a global pause used only in emergencies). None of this gives anyone custody of your funds — it only governs the automation.

Putting it together#

The lifecycle of a deposit, end to end:

1. You deposit two tokens (or zap a single token / BNB).
2. The strategy deploys them across a main range and an alt range — no forced swaps.
3. The position is staked in the gauge and earns trading fees + TOPAZ.
4. Harvests convert rewards into more of the pair and compound them in.
5. As the price moves, the strategy re-centers — only when the market is calm.
6. You withdraw anytime, receiving your pro-rata tokens.

Keep reading#

Fees & yield→Zapping→Risks & security→