Selling a bond
A bond is an ERC-721 token, so it can be sent to any wallet or listed on any marketplace that supports the standard. Nothing extra is needed to have a market.
What travels with the position
Everything that gives it value:
| Follows the bond | |
|---|---|
| Principal | ✅ |
| The daily rate you built up by compounding | ✅ |
| Accrued, unclaimed rewards | ✅ |
| A live commit boost (+5) | ✅ — a forfeited one stays forfeited |
The accrual is settled at the instant of transfer. That matters for pricing: the pending figure becomes a fixed number at handover rather than one that drifts with the block.
One boost-specific detail. While a commit bond sits listed, it still earns for the seller's account — so if the seller moves a single token during the listing, the boost dies right there in escrow, and cancelling brings the bond home without it. The listing's quote always shows the effective rate computed against the seller's state: a boost the seller already forfeited is never advertised as alive. Buy a bond with a live boost and it starts fresh with you — until the day you move a token.
Why buying here is safe
A bond's value is its principal, its earned rate and the rewards accrued so far. On a generic marketplace the seller keeps the position while it is listed — so they can claim those rewards in the block before delivery and hand over a stripped bond for full price. Nothing there can notice.
Covenant's marketplace removes the problem instead of guarding against it: listing hands the position to the contract. From that moment the seller is not its owner, so the bond contract itself refuses every attempt to claim, compound or move it. There is no parameter for a buyer to get right and no figure to re-check at the last second.
Cancelling returns the position immediately, exactly as it stood. Only the listing fee (below) is spent — it paid for the listing itself.
If you buy a bond through a generic ERC-721 marketplace instead, this protection does not apply. Read the position's pending amount in the same block you buy.
Rewards are normally windowed — skipped 6h windows are forfeited. Custody is the one exception: while the market holds your bond, every window is credited in full when the position is caught up. You could not show up; the protocol does not punish you for it.
It keeps growing while listed
A listed position still accrues, but its rate ladder would stall because the seller can no longer compound it. So anyone can advance a listed bond — including you, before you buy it — and a purchase compounds it one last time on the way out.
You therefore always receive a freshly settled position rather than one that has been sitting idle.
The fee
The fee is split in two, and both halves go to the creator, in ETH:
| When | How much |
|---|---|
| Posting a listing | 1% of your asking price, paid up front |
| The sale itself | 2% of the price, taken from the buyer's payment |
A completed sale therefore costs 3% in total — the same cut the protocol takes on a buy or a sell in the pool. Covenant charges 3% whenever value changes hands, whether through the pool or through a bond.
The listing half is charged when the ask is posted, and it is not returned if you cancel: it pays for the listing itself, which makes parking unrealistic asks on the book cost something.
Both rates are constants in the contract. The creator holds exactly one lever: switching the schedule off and back on. Off means both fees are zero; on means exactly 1% + 2% again. No function on the contract accepts any other rate, so the fees can be waived — never raised.