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ASTERIA

Marketplace overview

Primary sale, secondary trading and how listings will work.

  • 5 min read
  • Page 15 of 24

The Asteria marketplace is where registry entries will change hands — first from Asteria to collectors in a fixed-price primary sale, later between holders on a secondary market. None of it is live yet. This page describes the planned design so you know exactly what to expect, what will arrive at launch, what comes later, and the lines the marketplace will never cross.

Status
In development
Preview site only
Primary sale
Fixed price
Set per tier, published in advance
Token standard
ERC-721
Network to be announced
Secondary market
After launch
Listings, offers, auctions

What the marketplace sells#

Every listing is a registry entry: a unique token that records one catalogued asteroid, its Asteria name, its story and its scientific data in the Asteria registry, accompanied by a digital certificate. It is a digital collectible. It does not transfer ownership of, or any right in, the asteroid itself — no private registry can do that. The legal framework explains why.

Each entry belongs to one of three curated tiers — Genesis, Celestial or Sovereign — described in Pricing & tiers.

The primary sale#

The primary sale is the first time an entry leaves the registry and arrives in a collector's wallet. It is designed to be calm, transparent and fair rather than fast.

  1. Prices are published first

    Before the sale opens, every entry's price is published alongside its tier. Prices are fixed: there is no bidding and no surge pricing in the primary sale. The prices you see on this preview site are demo values and will change.

  2. Waitlist priority window

    Waitlist members are invited to an early window before the public sale. Priority means earlier access, not a guaranteed allocation — popular entries may be gone before your window opens. Per-wallet limits may apply to keep the first sale fair; any limits will be announced in advance.

  3. Connect a wallet and review

    You connect a self-custody wallet, choose an entry and see a full summary: price, network fee estimate, what you receive and what you do not. You must accept the terms of sale before checkout.

  4. Mint and record

    On confirmation, the token is minted to your wallet and the registry records the entry as named. Your certificate is generated from the token's metadata and becomes available in your dashboard.

  5. Naming ceremony

    The entry's curated Asteria name is revealed with its certificate. A personal dedication — a short inscription added to the certificate — is planned, subject to the naming guidelines.

The secondary market#

Once the primary sale is complete and the contracts have been audited, holders will be able to trade entries with each other directly on Asteria.

Listings#

A holder sets a fixed price and signs a listing. The token stays in the holder's wallet until a buyer completes the purchase; at that moment the token moves to the buyer and the payment, minus any fees, moves to the seller in a single transaction.

Offers#

Anyone can make an offer on any entry, listed or not. The holder can accept, ignore or let it expire. Offers are signed messages, so making one does not move your funds until it is accepted.

Auctions#

Timed auctions are planned for holders who prefer to let collectors bid. Rules — reserve prices, minimum increments, extension on late bids — will be documented before the feature ships.

Royalties that support the registry#

Secondary sales on Asteria are planned to include a creator royalty, signalled on-chain with the ERC-2981 standard. It exists to fund the registry's upkeep: verification of catalogue data, metadata and media hosting, and the public registry explorer. Rates are not final; see Fees & royalties, including why royalties may not be honoured on third-party marketplaces.

The owner dashboard#

Holders will have a dashboard that brings every entry together in one place:

  • Your entries — each token with its registry ID, Asteria name, official designation and live orbit diagram.
  • Certificates — high-resolution downloads, generated from the token's metadata.
  • Dedications — add or review a dedication, where the feature is available.
  • Listings and offers — create, edit or cancel listings and respond to offers.
  • History — the on-chain provenance of each token: mint, transfers and sales.

The dashboard reads from the public chain. It is a window onto your wallet, not a place where your tokens are kept.

At launch, and later#

The roadmap splits the marketplace into two phases. At launch (Phase 3): wallet connect, checkout, the primary sale across all three tiers, the naming ceremony, certificates and the owner dashboard. Later (Phase 4): listings, offers and auctions between holders, a public registry explorer and API, and collector profiles.

Unless the final contract specification says otherwise, tokens will be standard transferable ERC-721 tokens from the moment they are minted. That means holders may be able to transfer them, or list them on third-party marketplaces, before Asteria's own secondary market opens. Asteria does not operate or control those venues.

  1. Phase 0NowIn progress

    Registry foundations

    Brand, preview site, documentation and the first registry entries.

    • Preview website and full documentation
    • Registry naming guidelines published
    • Catalogue data model and token metadata schema
    • Waitlist opens
  2. Phase 1NextPlanned

    Verification & legal review

    Independent verification of the catalogue and a full legal review before any sale.

    • Cross-check every entry against public small-body databases
    • Terms of sale, privacy policy and risk disclosures reviewed by counsel
    • Choice of chain and custody model finalised
    • Smart-contract specification frozen
  3. Phase 2LaterPlanned

    Contracts & audit

    Token and registry contracts deployed to testnet, then audited.

    • Registry NFT contract + on-chain name registry
    • ERC-2981 royalty support
    • Public testnet with faucet and test listings
    • Third-party security audit, published in full
  4. Phase 3LaterPlanned

    Marketplace launch

    Primary sale of the Genesis collection and the naming ceremony go live.

    • Wallet connect and checkout
    • Primary sale: Genesis, Celestial and Sovereign tiers
    • Live naming ceremony and digital certificates
    • Owner dashboard
  5. Phase 4FuturePlanned

    Secondary market & community

    Peer-to-peer trading, offers, collections and community features.

    • Listings, offers and auctions between holders
    • Public registry explorer and API
    • Collector profiles and galleries
    • Educational partnerships and observation events

Windows are targets, not commitments.

What the marketplace will never do#

Some decisions are not up for revision. The marketplace will never:

  • Ask for your seed phrase or private key. Not in a form, not in a chat, not in an email. Anyone who asks is attempting theft.
  • Hold custody of your tokens. Listings are signed orders; your token stays in your wallet until a sale settles.
  • Offer lending, staking, yield or interest on registry entries, or accept them as collateral.
  • Fractionalise entries. One entry, one token.
  • Market entries as investments. No price predictions, no floor-price promotion, no language about returns.
  • Fake activity. No invented sales volume, no wash trading by Asteria, no fabricated scarcity.
  • Claim that you own an asteroid or that its Asteria name is official.

Next steps#

Pricing & tiersHow entries are curated into Genesis, Celestial and Sovereign.Fees & royaltiesThe planned fee model, with an illustrative worked example.Wallets & custodyChoose a wallet and keep your token safe before launch.