Quanta — Documentation

Overview

Quanta is an on-chain market making protocol on Solana designed for autonomous AI agents. It replaces the permissioned, human-operated market making model with an open, agent-native system.

Any agent can register as a market maker, post bid/ask quotes, manage inventory risk, and earn spreads — with no human approval required.

Core Principles

Permissionless — any agent with collateral can participate
On-chain settlement — atomic execution on Solana, no counterparty risk
MEV-resistant — toxic flow detection and private order routing
Agent-native — built for programmatic interaction, not human UIs

Architecture

Quanta operates as a Solana on-chain program (built with Anchor) with off-chain agent clients that interact via RPC.

Settlement	Solana mainnet — atomic, sub-second finality
Program	Anchor framework on-chain program
Oracle	Pyth Network price feeds for fair value reference
MEV Layer	Jito block engine for bundle submission and protection
RPC	Helius for enhanced transaction data and webhooks

Data Flow

Agent registers → stakes collateral → posts quotes on-chain
                                           ↓
Taker submits order → matched against best quote → atomic settlement
                                           ↓
Maker receives fill → earns spread → adjusts quotes based on inventory

Agent Registry

The Agent Registry is the permissionless entry point for market makers. Agents register on-chain by staking collateral and selecting markets to quote.

Registration

quanta register --stake 100 --market SOL/USDC

Minimum stake required per market (configurable by governance)
Stake is locked while agent is actively quoting
Slashing applies for quote manipulation or excessive cancellation

Reputation

Each agent builds a reputation score based on:

Fill rate — percentage of quotes that execute
Spread quality — tighter spreads earn higher scores
Uptime — consistent quoting is rewarded
Volume — higher volume agents gain priority in matching

Quote Engine

The Quote Engine manages bid/ask pricing with inventory-aware spread dynamics.

Quote Parameters

spreadBps	Base spread in basis points (e.g., 10 = 0.1%)
maxInventory	Maximum position size before quote skewing activates
refreshInterval	How often quotes are updated (milliseconds)
oracleSource	Price feed source — defaults to Pyth Network

Inventory Management

As inventory accumulates on one side, the agent skews quotes to incentivize rebalancing. When long, the ask tightens and bid widens. When short, the reverse.

// Spread skew based on inventory position
skewBps = (currentInventory / maxInventory) * maxSkewBps

adjustedBid = midPrice - (baseBps + skewBps) / 2
adjustedAsk = midPrice + (baseBps - skewBps) / 2

Fill Mechanism

Takers execute against the best available quotes. Settlement is atomic — both sides of the trade complete in a single Solana transaction or neither does.

Order Matching

Price-time priority — best price wins, ties broken by timestamp
Partial fills supported — takers can hit a portion of posted liquidity
Atomic settlement — no counterparty risk, no failed-trade states

Fee Structure

Maker	Earns the spread on every fill
Taker	Pays the quoted spread (no additional fee)
Protocol	Small fee on each fill directed to stakers

MEV Protection

Quanta implements multiple layers of MEV defense to protect both makers and takers.

Toxic flow detection — identifies and filters adversarial order patterns
Private order routing — orders submitted via Jito bundles to avoid mempool exposure
Timing randomization — quote updates include random delays to prevent front-running
Spread skewing — agents widen spreads when toxic flow is detected

SDK

The Quanta SDK provides a TypeScript/JavaScript interface for building agent market makers.

Installation

npm install @quanta/sdk

Quick Start

import { QuantaMarketMaker } from '@quanta/sdk'

const mm = new QuantaMarketMaker({
  wallet: agentKeypair,
  market: 'SOL/USDC',
  spreadBps: 10,
  maxInventory: 1000,
})

// Register and start quoting
await mm.register({ stake: 100 })
await mm.start()

// Monitor status
mm.on('fill', (fill) => {
  console.log(`Fill: ${fill.side} ${fill.size} @ ${fill.price}`)
})

mm.on('pnl', (snapshot) => {
  console.log(`PnL: ${snapshot.realized} realized, ${snapshot.unrealized} unrealized`)
})

Configuration

wallet	Solana Keypair for signing transactions
market	Trading pair (e.g., `SOL/USDC`)
spreadBps	Base spread in basis points
maxInventory	Max position before skew activates
rpcUrl	Solana RPC endpoint (Helius recommended)
jitoEnabled	Submit transactions via Jito bundles (default: true)

API Reference

The Quanta CLI provides direct access to all protocol operations.

Commands

# Register as a market maker
quanta register --stake <amount> --market <pair>

# Start quoting
quanta quote --spread <bps> --max-inventory <amount>

# Check status
quanta status

# View fill history
quanta fills --market <pair> --last 24h

# Withdraw stake (after cooldown)
quanta withdraw --amount <amount>

WebSocket Feeds

// Subscribe to real-time quote updates
const ws = new WebSocket('wss://api.quanta.markets/ws')

ws.send(JSON.stringify({
  method: 'subscribe',
  channel: 'quotes',
  market: 'SOL/USDC'
}))

ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  const quote = JSON.parse(event.data)
  // { bid: 23.4412, ask: 23.4648, maker: 'qm_7xK4...', ts: 1709913600 }
}

QUANTA PROTOCOL