Market Maker Integration Overview Guide
This guide is intended for business and partnership teams onboarding as a Market Maker on Bolt, and is designed to be shared directly with your technical, quant, or trading infrastructure teams.
Bolt’s architecture differs meaningfully from traditional AMMs and CEX market making. Understanding these differences up front will help your team integrate smoothly and operate efficiently.
How Market Making on Bolt Works (High Level)
Bolt is a deterministic execution venue that separates:
Pricing (via oracle reference prices)
Liquidity provisioning (single-sided inventory)
Risk management (handled by the market maker via hedging)
Unlike traditional AMMs:
There is no bonding curve
There is no passive 50/50 liquidity pool
Capital is only used when real order flow executes
As a market maker, you are responsible for:
Monitoring oracle prices
Providing on-chain liquidity
Hedging executed trades externally
Rebalancing inventory over time
Core Responsibilities for Market Makers
1. Oracle Price Setup & Monitoring
What this means
Bolt executes trades using a reference oracle price rather than an AMM curve. This ensures:
Deterministic execution
No slippage from curve mechanics
Clear separation between pricing and liquidity
What your technical team needs to do
Integrate one or more trusted price oracles
Continuously monitor price updates and latency
Validate oracle freshness before execution
Define safeguards for stale or abnormal prices
Why this matters
If oracle prices lag or diverge significantly from external markets, the market maker is exposed to adverse selection. Reliable price monitoring is critical to safe operation.
2. Watching Execution & Hedging Events
What this means
When trades execute on Bolt:
You receive on-chain fills at oracle prices
Exposure is immediately created
You are expected to hedge that exposure externally (CEXs or deep DEXs)
This model mirrors professional CEX market making.
What your technical team needs to build
An on-chain execution listener (fills, size, direction)
A real-time hedging engine connected to external venues
Latency-aware execution logic for volatile markets
Risk limits that pause or throttle activity if conditions degrade
Common hedge venues
Centralized exchanges
Perpetual futures
Deep on-chain liquidity venues
3. Inventory & Pool Rebalancing
How this differs from AMMs
Bolt does not automatically rebalance liquidity after trades.
Instead:
Inventory is consumed when trades execute
You replenish inventory after hedging
You control how and when liquidity is refreshed
Typical rebalance flow
Trade executes on Bolt
Exposure is hedged externally
On-chain inventory is replenished
Internal books and limits are updated
What your tech team needs
Inventory accounting (on-chain + off-chain)
Minimum balance thresholds per market
Automated or semi-automated refill logic
Alerting when inventory falls below safe levels
Default Liquidity Guidelines
Bolt does not enforce fixed liquidity minimums. However, the following starting defaults are recommended to ensure smooth execution and partner-grade performance.
These should be adjusted based on:
Asset volatility
Expected order sizes
Risk tolerance
Suggested Starting Liquidity Levels
BTC / USDC
$25k
$30k+
Why this matters
Prevents frequent inventory exhaustion
Supports meaningful trade sizes
Ensures hedges can be executed without bottlenecks
Risk Management & Monitoring
Your internal dashboards should track:
Oracle price health and latency
Inventory levels (on-chain vs off-chain)
Execution volume and frequency
Hedge execution success and timing
Exposure limits by asset and venue
These metrics are essential for:
Capital efficiency
Operational safety
Ongoing parameter tuning
Integration Checklist (For Technical Teams)
Before Going Live
Oracle price feeds integrated and validated
On-chain execution watcher operational
Hedging infrastructure connected and tested
Inventory tracking system live
Risk limits and thresholds configured
Monitoring and alerts enabled
After Going Live
Monitor execution quality and hedge latency
Tune inventory thresholds and limits
Review oracle performance under volatility
Share performance metrics with business teams
Summary for Business Teams
Bolt enables:
Capital-efficient liquidity
Oracle-anchored pricing
Professional market-maker workflows
In exchange, market makers must actively manage:
Pricing inputs
Execution monitoring
Hedging
Inventory rebalancing
This model removes passive AMM inefficiencies while preserving institutional-grade control and transparency.
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