Understand who controls what
Separate the authority of the account holder, wallet key, coin-owner NFT, contracts and Orbit governance.
TL;DR
- The wallet key controls assets and signatures; Orbit holds it for an Orbit-managed wallet, while you hold it for an external wallet.
- Coin management follows the current holder of the coin-owner NFT, not permanently the original creator.
- Contracts enforce irreversible state and delays; Orbit governance can change defined protocol settings and pause supported actions, but cannot undo a confirmed user transaction.
Orbit has several kinds of control, and they do not all belong to the person who originally created a coin. Identify the authority before assuming what any party can change.
Account and wallet control
Your Orbit account controls profile settings, linked sign-in methods and access to managed product surfaces. The trading wallet controls ETH, coin balances and the owner NFT.
For a passkey or social account, Orbit-managed wallet custody means Orbit currently keeps the key and signs only through approved product paths. For an external wallet you connected yourself, Orbit never receives the key and your wallet asks you to sign.
Coin control follows the owner NFT
Deployment mints one transferable owner NFT for the coin. Its current holder can use owner-only controls, including metadata, venue and avatar management, trading activation, earnings configuration and distribution when each product surface is available.
The original creator remains a provenance fact but does not keep management authority after the NFT moves. Ownership transfer takes effect immediately on-chain; an earnings-split change has a seven-day waiting period. The in-product ownership-transfer control is currently gated.
Contracts control the irreversible rules
Smart contracts hold the token supply, operate the curve, enforce the lifecycle, route fee shares and create the graduated pool. At graduation, the full-range LP NFT is transferred to the standard burn address and cannot be withdrawn by the creator or Orbit through a protocol recovery path.
An owner NFT holder or Orbit administrator cannot reverse a confirmed trade, retrieve a transfer sent to the wrong address or reopen a graduated curve.
These controls sit alongside rules for large atomic trades, same-block token movement and graduated-pool swap shapes. Understand Orbit’s contract protections.
Orbit controls platform and governance settings
Orbit can use a product pause or switch to decide whether supported money surfaces are available, operate backend signing for managed wallets, and use governance processes to update defined protocol parameters. For example, the current split of the protocol share is governance-updatable and changes future protocol-fee routing for existing coins as well as new ones.
Good to know
“On-chain” does not mean nobody has any authority. Check which value is immutable, which follows an NFT, which changes after a delay and which remains an Orbit governance or product switch.
Common questions
Does the original creator keep control after the owner NFT moves?
No. The original creator remains provenance, while owner-only authority follows the current NFT holder. Follow a coin from creation to market explains where that authority sits in the lifecycle.
Can an Orbit administrator reverse a transfer sent to the wrong address?
No. A confirmed transaction cannot be undone through an owner control or product setting. Keep your wallet and account safe lists the checks to make before signing.
Which changes wait seven days?
A post-deployment earnings-split change has the seven-day delay. Ownership transfer takes effect immediately on-chain, although the in-product transfer surface is currently gated.