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Create Orca Whirlpool LP

You can open an Orca pool on J Tools in two places: the app’s Orca Create LP page, which is Create LP locked to Orca, or Create LP itself with an Orca route picked. Both run the same flow and charge the same fee. Two Orca routes are live, Whirlpool (concentrated, you choose the fee tier and price range) and Splash (a simple full-range pool at a fixed 1% fee).

A Whirlpool position is concentrated. You pick a fee tier, a price range and the amounts to deposit, then sign in your own wallet. Orca hands you a position NFT that represents your share of the pool, and it earns swap fees for as long as the market price stays inside the band you picked.

What it is

#what-it-is

The Orca Whirlpool route in Create LP launches a concentrated liquidity position on Orca’s Whirlpool pools. Instead of spreading your tokens evenly across every possible price, you concentrate them into a band where you expect trading to happen. The deeper your liquidity is inside that band, the larger your share of the swap fees while the price is there.

The whole thing runs from the browser. You connect a wallet, set the pair, enter how much of your token to deposit (the quote side is worked out from the range), pick a fee tier (its tick spacing comes with it), define your price range, and sign. The result is a position NFT that sits in your wallet; the run window lists it as Position NFT under Save these. If pool concepts are new to you, the DEXes and liquidity primer covers the basics, and the Glossary explains any term you trip over.

How it works (under the hood)

#how-it-works-under-the-hood

A Whirlpool is Orca’s concentrated-liquidity pool. Rather than a single smooth curve, the price axis is sliced into discrete steps called ticks. The tick spacing decides how fine those steps are, and each spacing is paired with a swap-fee tier: a tight spacing (like 1) carves the axis into many small steps and lets liquidity sit in a very narrow band, while a wide spacing (like 256) uses coarse steps for a broad, low-maintenance range. Create LP sets the matching spacing for you when you pick a fee tier, because the app only accepts the spacing that belongs to the tier.

When you open a position, you pick a lower price and an upper price. Your deposit is mathematically concentrated between those two bounds. While the market price trades in range, your liquidity is active: swaps route through it and you collect a share of the swap fee proportional to how much liquidity you hold at the current price. Because your capital is packed into a band instead of the whole curve, each dollar earns far more in fees than it would in a full-range pool.

The split between the two tokens is not something you set freely. The pool derives it from where the current price sits relative to your range. Create LP sizes the position from your base amount and works out the quote side from there. If the price is near your lower bound, the position holds mostly the token that becomes cheaper; near the upper bound, mostly the other one. The closer the price is to a boundary, the more lopsided the deposit. When the price crosses out of range, the position stops earning and converts fully to the single token on whichever side the price left through, until the price returns or you reset the range.

Orca records your position as an NFT minted to your wallet. That NFT is your claim on the deposited liquidity and the fees it accrues, and it is what later tools read to let you add, remove, or close the position. The platform fee is a SOL transfer to the platform fee wallet, added to the pool transaction when it fits there and sent as its own prompt right after it when it does not.

Step by step

  1. Open Create LP on the Orca route
  2. Set the token pair
  3. Enter the deposit amounts
  4. Choose the fee tier
  5. Set the price range
  6. Create the position and save the IDs

How it works

Whirlpool, fee, then position up to three wallet prompts

  1. Whirlpool created at your initial price Whirlpool
  2. Fee tier sets the tick spacing tick spacing
  3. Position opened between your two prices tick range
  4. Position NFT minted to your wallet LP Mint
  5. Where price sits sets the A/B split
  6. Platform fee sent as a SOL transfer 0.15 SOL
  7. Earns fees only while price is in range in range

Live, save the Pool ID and LP Mint mainnet

circles are the steps in Step by step, squares the steps in How it works

When to use it

#when-to-use-it
  • You want capital-efficient liquidity on Orca and you have a view on where the pair will actually trade.
  • You are providing for a pair that moves inside a fairly stable band, and you want your deposit working there instead of spread thin.
  • You want an Orca position you can manage later from one place, held as an NFT in your own wallet.
  • You are comfortable monitoring the position, since concentrated ranges need attention when the price drifts.

To launch a standard full-range pool instead, or to compare DEX pool structures side by side, use Create LP. For concentrated liquidity on Raydium rather than Orca, see Create Raydium CLMM LP. To top up or pull an existing position, use Add or Remove Liquidity.

Before you start

#before-you-start
  • A connected wallet (how to connect). The page blocks creation until a wallet is connected.
  • Enough SOL for the platform fee, the on-chain account rent for the new pool and position, and the network fee.
  • The two token mints for the pair (base and quote), plus a balance of each to deposit.
  • A clear idea of your opening price and the lower and upper bounds you want liquidity to sit between.

Step by step

#step-by-step

  1. Open Create LP on the Orca route

    Open Orca Create LP, which opens on Whirlpool, or Create LP and its Orca tab, and connect your wallet at the top of the page. Pick Whirlpool among the Orca pool types. Splash sits beside it if you want a simple full-range pool at a fixed 1% fee instead.

  2. Set the token pair

    Enter the base and quote mints. Both use the shared token picker, so you can paste a mint or pick one you already hold. SOL, USDC and USDT are pinned at the top of the quote picker, any other mint can be searched or pasted, and the two sides cannot be the same token.

  3. Enter the deposit amounts

    Type the amount of your base token, or use the 25%, 50%, 60% or Max chip. The quote amount is worked out from the price and the range and marked auto. The Starting price, in quote tokens per base token, is the pair’s live market price when the pair already trades; when it does not, you type it in the price field above the chart. The position is sized from the base amount.

  4. Choose the fee tier

    Pick one of nine swap-fee tiers: 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.04%, 0.05%, 0.16%, 0.3%, 0.65%, 1% or 2%. The page pre-picks one for the pair it detects until you tap another. Each tier carries a matching tick spacing, set for you. Lower tiers suit stable pairs, higher tiers pay more per trade on volatile ones.

  5. Set the price range

    The chart draws the pair’s live candles with your range on top. Tap ±10%, ±25%, ±50% or Full range, or drag the Min and Max handles. The min has to be above 0 and the max above the min. A range that leaves the price outside it would put in one token only, so Create pool stays shut until the price sits inside the range again. When the pair already trades, the chart also says how much of the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days the price would have stayed in your range.

  6. Create the position and save the IDs

    Check the receipt, then press Create pool. The run window lists up to three approvals: opening the Whirlpool, the platform fee when it did not fit inside the Whirlpool transaction, then adding liquidity with the position. A range that needs new tick arrays adds one more step, preparing the price range accounts, before the position, and Splash follows the same order. Declining part-way stops the run there, and Continue where it stopped picks it up later without opening the pool again or charging a paid fee twice. When it confirms, save the Pool ID and the Position NFT from Save these, then open them on Solscan. The app also keeps the pool in My Pools in this browser.

Open Orca Create LP →

The options, explained

#the-options-explained
  • Base mint: the first token of the pair. Entered through the shared token picker, so you can paste an address or pick one you hold.
  • Quote mint: the second token of the pair. SOL, USDC and USDT are pinned at the top of the picker, and another mint can be searched or pasted. Cannot match the base token.
  • Fee tier: the swap fee the pool charges, one of 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.04%, 0.05%, 0.16%, 0.3%, 0.65%, 1% or 2%. The page pre-picks it for the pair it detects until you choose.
  • Tick spacing: how finely the pool slices the price axis. It follows the fee tier (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 64, 96, 128 or 256) and cannot be edited. A smaller spacing packs liquidity tighter and earns more per dollar in range, but leaves range sooner.
  • Starting price: the opening price of the pool, quoted in quote tokens per base token. The pair’s live market price when the pair already trades, otherwise the price you type. Must be greater than zero.
  • Min: the lower handle on the chart, the bottom of your range. Has to be above 0.
  • Max: the upper handle on the chart, the top of your range. Has to be above the min.
  • Base amount: how much of your base token you deposit. The position is sized from this number.
  • Quote amount: worked out from where the price sits in your range and marked auto, so you do not type it.
  • Position NFT: Orca mints your position as an NFT that lives in your wallet, and the run window shows it as Position NFT under Save these. It represents your claim on the deposited liquidity and the fees it accrues, and it is how you manage or close the position later.

Fees and costs

#fees-and-costs

Current platform fee: 0.15 SOL on the concentrated Whirlpool route, 0.1 SOL on a Splash Pool. The amount is fixed per route in the app, and Create LP shows it in the receipt before you sign.

CostAmount
J Tools platform fee (Create LP)0.15 SOL on Whirlpool, 0.1 SOL on Splash
Solana network feea small amount paid to validators, plus rent for any new on-chain accounts

Create LP shows no DEX protocol fee for Orca. On top of the platform fee, Solana charges a small network fee per transaction (a fraction of a cent in SOL), and creating a new Whirlpool plus a position holds some SOL as account rent to keep those on-chain accounts alive. Rent is not a fee in the usual sense; it is SOL held in the new accounts. Keep enough spare SOL in the wallet to cover all three, or the signing step fails for insufficient funds.

Common mistakes and troubleshooting

#common-mistakes-and-troubleshooting
  • Required fields missing. Create pool stays shut until the pair and the base amount are set and, on Whirlpool, the range is set. The starting price has to be above zero.
  • Price range is invalid. The min has to be above 0 and the max above the min, or Create pool stays shut. The two ends are then rounded to the tick spacing; if they land on the same tick, the run stops before the position and asks you to widen the range.
  • Same token on both sides. Base and quote have to be different mints. The picker excludes the side you already chose.
  • Position goes out of range. If the market price moves past your lower or upper bound, the position stops earning and ends up entirely on one side of the pair. Widen the range or reset it around the new price to put the liquidity back to work. Starting with the current price in the middle of the band keeps both directions active for longer.
  • Impermanent loss. As the price moves within your range, the pool rebalances the two tokens against you, so the position can be worth less than simply holding the tokens. Tight concentrated ranges magnify this. The fees you earn help offset it, but on a sharp one-way move they may not. Size the position with that in mind.
  • Price and amounts disagree. If the pool’s price and your range would need more than ten times the quote amount on the form, the run stops before the position and names the amount it would need. Fix the starting price or the amounts. A funded Whirlpool with the same pair and tick spacing also stops the run before anything is signed; add to that pool with Liquidity Add / Remove instead.

For the full list and what each code means, see the Error codes reference.

#related-tools

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