FN-001 ·
Stations, not curves: how DLMM bins price a market
Meteora DLMM replaces a continuous curve with discrete price bins. Here is what that means when you place liquidity.
A line of stations
A classic constant-product pool spreads liquidity across every possible price. DLMM instead cuts the price axis into discrete bins. Each bin is a single price, and inside a bin trades execute at that price with zero slippage until the bin's reserves are used up.
Neighbouring bins are separated by the pool's bin step, measured in basis points. A 25 bps bin step means each station is 0.25% further along the line than the last. The price of bin i is (1 + binStep/10,000)^i, adjusted for token decimals.
Where the train stands
Exactly one bin is active at any time. Bins above the active bin hold only token X; bins below hold only token Y; the active bin can hold both. When a trade drains the active bin, the price moves to the next station and that bin becomes active.
This is why a one-sided deposit above the current price is entirely X, and why a range that drifts out of the active bin stops earning swap fees until price returns.
What Studio Loco shows you
The Rail Map on every pool page draws real bins fetched with the official SDK around the active bin, with the active station marked. Range selection always resolves to whole bin ids, and transactions are built by the SDK from those integer bins.