Saleium glossary, key terms explained
Updated Jun 21, 2026, 09:46 AM
This glossary defines the terms you will see across Saleium's four products (Token Sale, Staking, Vesting, and Airdrop) so you can read the wizards and hosted pages with confidence.
Who this is for: Both. Project operators deploying products and participants taking part in a sale, pool, or claim.
What does each Saleium term mean?
IDO / ICO. A public token sale. On Saleium, the Token Sale product runs a public sale on a chain you choose, embeddable on your own website. People contribute during the sale window, then claim their tokens after it is finalized.
Fixed-price sale. How a Saleium sale prices tokens. The project sets a rate per accepted currency (sale tokens per 1 unit of that currency), and a sale can accept several currencies, each with its own rate. There is no oversubscription, no pro-rata scaling, and no on-chain raise cap. The "estimated raise" field in the create wizard is for context and sizing only and does not select a fee tier or change the platform fee; it is not a cap.
Saleium widget vs Saleium v2. Two different products share the Saleium name. This documentation covers Saleium v2, the self-serve platform at saleium.io, whose sales are fixed price (no oversubscription, no pro-rata, no excess refunds). The older Saleium widget at pad.chaingpt.org/saleium is powered by ChainGPT Pad's subscription sale and works differently: it uses oversubscription with pro-rata allocation and excess refunds. When someone mentions oversubscription or excess refunds on Saleium, they mean the widget, not v2.
Allocation. What you receive from a sale. Your allocation is the amount you contribute multiplied by the rate for that currency, fixed at the moment you contribute. It is never recalculated later. Everyone who contributes during the open window gets exactly that amount.
Finalize. The step that closes out a sale after its window ends. Finalize requires the pool to be solvent: it must already hold enough sale tokens to cover every allocation, so claims can never fail. If the project does not finalize within about a day (a grace window) after close, anyone can finalize a solvent sale, so a successful sale cannot be stranded. Finalize, cancel, and withdraw are restricted to the project's wallet.
Claim (sale). Once a sale is finalized, each contributor claims their full allocation in one transaction. The sale itself does not vest tokens. If a project wants a vesting schedule for sold tokens, it uses the separate Saleium Vesting product.
Refund (sale). Available only on a failed sale: if the project cancels the sale, or the sale times out (never finalized within the grace window after close), contributors can refund their full contribution, with a 5% refund fee deducted. There is no "excess" refund and no refund on a successful sale.
Always-exit. The guarantee that a contributor can always get out: claim the full allocation if the sale succeeds, or refund the full contribution if the sale is canceled or times out.
Cliff. A waiting period at the start of a vesting schedule during which nothing unlocks. Saleium's vesting model is linear vesting with an optional cliff. Until the cliff passes, a beneficiary can claim zero. After it, unlocked tokens become claimable.
Linear vesting. Tokens unlock gradually and evenly over time rather than all at once. Beneficiaries claim their unlocked portion on the claim page as it accrues. The live vesting model is linear plus an optional cliff.
MultiSender. The instant-send mode of the Airdrop product. It pushes tokens to everyone now. For an ERC-20 you first approve the total, then sends go out in batches automatically. The preview shows you the batch count before you send, alongside the recipient count and total. You pay a small network fee per recipient. The native coin is instant-only.
Merkle claim. The claim-page mode of the Airdrop product. You deploy a claim contract and fund it once, then recipients claim their own share and pay their own gas. This is best for large drops and is ERC-20 only (the native coin cannot use claim mode). Each campaign gets a public claim page at https://saleium.io/airdrop/{chainId}/{distributorAddress}.
Allowlist. A list of approved addresses (and, in vesting, their allocations). In vesting you add beneficiaries (address, amount, and schedule) after the pool deploys. For sales, compliance controls such as KYC and geo-blocking can govern who may take part. The self-managed route lets you define your own compliance approach.
Watermark. The "Powered by Saleium" badge shown on widgets and hosted pages. It is on by default and on the Free plan; paid plans (Growth and up) remove it, and the "Show Powered by Saleium" toggle in Embed Studio controls it.
Deploy fee. The cost of deploying a product. You pay network gas from your own wallet to deploy. On paid plans (Growth and up) the deploy fee is waived. The platform fee is the percentage Saleium takes on each product, and it differs by product:
- Sale: 15% of a successful raise, paid by the project from the raised funds when it withdraws them. It does not reduce a contributor's token allocation. A project may add its own markup of up to 10% on top, which it keeps, so a contributor may see up to about 25% taken from the raise. If a sale fails or times out, contributors pay a 5% refund fee, deducted from their refund.
- Staking: 5% of rewards, taken from reward payouts. Your plan lowers it: Growth 4.75%, Pro 4.5%, Business 3.75%.
- Vesting: 1% of the tokens, taken when the project funds the vesting pool (charged on each funding). Beneficiaries also pay a small per-claim fee in the network's gas token (about $1 worth, or the claim's gas cost, whichever is higher) when they claim.
- Airdrop: no platform fee, only network gas.
Every fee is stamped immutably at deploy: the platform can never raise it later, and a higher plan can only lower it. The Plans & Billing page shows the exact rates for your plan.
Escrowed rewards. In Staking, rewards are paid from a reward budget you fund into the pool. Because rewards are escrowed and paid from that budget, if it runs low, reward claims can fail. Keep the pool funded.
Instance / contract. The smart contract you deploy for a product (a sale, staking pool, vesting pool, or airdrop distributor). On the self-serve route it is non-custodial: you deploy your own contracts from your own wallet and you own them. Saleium never takes custody. After deploy you receive the contract address.
Deployer wallet. The wallet you connect and deploy from. It pays network gas, signs the deploy, and owns the resulting contract. You manage the product from this wallet.
For project operators
You will meet most of these terms inside the four wizards at https://saleium.io. The deploy flow moves through drafting, deploying, recording, and done, then shows a "Deployed" card with your new contract address and next steps. Sale, Staking, and Vesting are available on Growth and higher plans. Airdrop is available on every plan, including Free.
For participants
You will meet these terms on hosted pages and embedded widgets. You connect a wallet, then contribute to a sale, stake in a pool, claim vested tokens, or claim an airdrop. In a sale, remember that your allocation is fixed when you contribute (amount contributed times the rate), and you can always exit: claim your full allocation if the sale succeeds, or refund your full contribution (less the 5% refund fee) if the sale is canceled or times out.
Common issues
- Reward claim fails on a staking pool. The pool's escrowed reward budget may be low. Ask the operator to fund it.
- Confused about a fee. Saleium's platform fee depends on the product: a Sale takes 15% of a successful raise from the project (plus up to a 10% optional project markup, and a 5% refund fee on contributors if the sale fails or times out); Staking takes 5% of rewards (lower on paid plans: Growth 4.75%, Pro 4.5%, Business 3.75%); Vesting takes 1% of the tokens when the project funds the pool, plus a small per-claim gas-token fee on beneficiaries; Airdrops have no platform fee, only network gas. Every fee is stamped immutably at deploy and a higher plan can only lower it. See the Plans & Billing page for your exact rates.
- Want a fully managed sale or to run a ChainGPT Pad sale and a self-hosted Saleium sale at the same time (Mirror Mode). These are arranged with the ChainGPT team, not a toggle in the self-serve wizard. Contact the ChainGPT team.