What a Basket is
What you own when you hold one, and why holdings that drift from their starting split are working correctly.
Holding a Basket means owning a fixed share of its holdings. Not a claim on a fund, not a promise: a share of assets sitting in the token's own contract.
What the token actually says
A Basket does not track percentages. It records exact amounts:
| One CATS is backed by | |
|---|---|
| AI | 20.264749 |
| CASHCAT | 18.248034 |
Those numbers are the definition of the token. They do not change on their own, and every holder is backed by the same amounts.
Multiply them by the number of tokens in existence and you get exactly what the contract holds. That is checkable at any moment, by anyone, on the explorer.
Why the split drifts, and why that is fine
A Basket that starts at 50/50 will not stay there. If one asset doubles while the other halves, the amounts held are unchanged but their relative value is not:
| AI | CASHCAT | Value | Split | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day one | 20.26 ($5.00) | 18.25 ($5.00) | $10.00 | 50/50 |
| Later | 20.26 ($10.00) | 18.25 ($2.50) | $12.50 | 80/20 |
This is how most real indexes behave. The S&P 500 does not sell its winners every night to get back to equal weights; letting them run is the point of the design.
A late buyer cannot dilute an earlier one
Someone buying at the second row has to supply 20.26 AI and 18.25 CASHCAT, which is $12.50 of assets, to receive one token worth $12.50. Buying never consults a price, so there is no stale or wrong price for anyone to take advantage of. Every purchase adds in exact proportion, and every redemption removes in exact proportion.
If a Basket is meant to hold its split, the person who created it can rebalance: sell some of the winner, buy the loser. That is a choice they make, not something the protocol enforces, and it is not free. See Rebalancing a Basket.
Who can change it
The creator can rebalance the holdings and adjust fees within the ceilings they committed to at launch. Nobody, including them, can:
- take assets out
- mint tokens that are not backed
- stop you from redeeming
- raise the fee ceilings above what was set on day one
A creator can also give up control permanently, after which the Basket can never be changed again by anyone. Whether a given Basket has done that is visible onchain.