A plain-language guide to what actually moves a token's price on TradePesa, and what doesn't - so a small buy that barely moves the price isn't a mystery, and a big one that swings it hard isn't a bug.
Every live token trades against a liquidity pool - a reserve of that token paired with K$Coin. The price is simply the ratio between the two: how much K$Coin is in the pool, divided by how much of the token is in the pool. This is the same automated market maker (AMM) model used by major decentralized exchanges like Uniswap - it's a well-established, transparent mechanism, not something unique or hidden.
A buy removes tokens from the pool and adds K$Coin to it. That shifts the ratio upward - the price goes up. This always happens on a real buy; it cannot lower the price.
A sell does the reverse - it adds tokens back to the pool and removes K$Coin. The ratio shifts downward - the price goes down. This always happens on a real sell.
How much a trade moves the price depends entirely on how large that trade is relative to the pool - not on the trade's size alone. The same number of tokens bought will barely move the price on a deep pool, and move it sharply on a shallow one.
| Pool Depth | Trade Size (relative to pool) | Typical Price Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Very deep pool | ~0.01% of the pool | ~0.01–0.03% |
| Very deep pool | ~2% of the pool | ~3–4% |
| Shallow pool | ~0.01% of the pool | ~0.01–0.03% (same rule, smaller pool) |
| Shallow pool | ~2% of the pool | ~3–4% (same rule, smaller pool) |
Illustrative figures - the exact numbers depend on each token's own pool. The rule that matters: it's always about proportion, not absolute trade size. A newly created token with a small pool will naturally feel more "sensitive" to trading than an established token with a deep one - that's a property of liquidity depth, not a fault in either token.
A few things that sometimes get blamed for price movement, clarified.
Now that you know what actually moves the price, browse live tokens or create your own.