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Fees, Staking and Gauges

Trading fees and $RAPH emissions are separate reward sources with separate rules. Understanding which of the two a position earns, and why, is the heart of providing liquidity on Raphael.

Trading fees​

Each swap pays the pool's configured fee. Fees accrue in the tokens traded through the pool, not in $RAPH. Fee settings can differ by pool and may change where the deployed governance and factory permissions allow it.

Gauges​

A gauge is the contract that accounts for staked liquidity and distributes the $RAPH emissions assigned to its pool.

  • Basic pools generally stake fungible LP tokens.
  • Concentrated pools generally stake position NFTs.
  • A pool without a live gauge cannot receive gauge emissions.

Gauges are created through the protocol's governance machinery; a pool existing does not automatically give it one. See Epochs and Emissions for how emissions reach gauges.

Staked vs unstaked positions​

Depending on the deployed Raphael contracts and pool configuration:

  • an unstaked position may receive trading fees directly;
  • a staked position may earn $RAPH emissions while some or all fee value is allocated through the voter-reward system;
  • certain pools may split value differently.
Check before staking

Review the position and transaction preview before staking. Do not assume that another ve(3,3) deployment's fee policy applies unchanged to Raphael.

APR interpretation​

APR is an estimate, not a promise. Common inputs include:

  • recent fees or volume;
  • the market price of $RAPH and other reward tokens;
  • active or total staked liquidity;
  • current emissions;
  • current vote share;
  • current incentives.

A concentrated pool may calculate emission APR against active in-range liquidity rather than all deposited liquidity. Rapid changes in price, votes or TVL can make a displayed APR obsolete within hours.