Price Impact — Why My Griff Coin Swap Once Showed 369%
I genuinely thought something was wrong when a GRIFF swap quote showed roughly 369% price impact. It turned into one of the most useful lessons in the whole project.
Concept explainer · about a 2-minute readThe quote looked absurd
During the early GRIFF liquidity experiment, a 1 SOL test quote showed roughly 369% price impact. The useful lesson was not the exact percentage; it was what the quote revealed about the relationship between the proposed trade and the pool.
The trade was enormous relative to the pool
At the time, the pool held very little SOL. Asking it to process a 1 SOL swap meant trying to trade an amount that was huge compared with the available reserves. The AMM curve therefore produced an extreme execution path.
It was local market structure
The number did not mean SOL had moved 369%, nor that every market valued GRIFF differently by 369%. It described the effect of that proposed trade against that particular shallow liquidity source.
Adding depth changed the result
As liquidity was added and trading altered the pool, comparable quotes became less extreme. That is a practical demonstration of why price impact is inseparable from trade size and available depth.
The number looked ridiculous — but it was useful
One of my early GRIFF tests showed roughly 369% price impact for a 1 SOL-sized swap. My first reaction was that something must be broken. The useful lesson was almost the opposite: the interface was warning me that the proposed trade was enormous compared with the liquidity available. It was not saying GRIFF had suddenly gained 369% in value. It was showing how badly that order would distort the pool while trying to execute.
What changed after I added liquidity
As I added liquidity and trading altered the pool, the same kind of quote became less extreme. At another point I saw a figure around 168%, still completely impractical but already demonstrating the principle. Later I tested a much smaller sale of roughly one million GRIFF and saw price impact around 0.38%. The important variable was not whether I was “buying GRIFF”; it was the size of the proposed trade relative to the market available to absorb it. That real experiment taught me more than a definition ever could.
This was one of the most useful mistakes/tests in the project. Before seeing the quote, “liquidity” was an abstract term to me. Afterward, I could see exactly why a price on a screen is not enough.