> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://the-heist-1.gitbook.io/the-heist-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://the-heist-1.gitbook.io/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/the-floor.md).

# Phase 4 — The Floor

The Floor is The Heist's safety net: a pool of WETH that every LOOT holder has a direct, guaranteed claim on. It's deliberately the simplest part of the whole system, because it's the one piece that has to be trusted completely.

## How it works

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    subgraph In["Money coming in"]
        A1[Printer's sale proceeds]
        A2[Below-target sell tax - 75% share]
        A3[Treasury payouts - 40% share]
    end
    A1 & A2 & A3 --> B[The Floor's\nWETH balance]
    B --> C["Payout per LOOT =\nWETH balance / LOOT supply"]
    C --> D{Anyone, any time}
    D -->|Trades in LOOT| E[That LOOT is destroyed]
    E --> F[You get amount x payout rate, in WETH]
    F --> G[Supply and balance both shrink\nby the same proportion --\npayout rate never drops]
```

## The rules, plainly

* **Payout rate = the Floor's WETH balance ÷ total LOOT supply.** This is calculated fresh every single time — there's no separate stored number that could ever fall out of sync with reality.
* **Anyone can cash out, any time.** Trade in some LOOT, and the contract destroys it and pays you exactly `amount × payout rate` in WETH. No fee. No waiting line. Nothing that can block it.
* **Redeeming can never lower the payout rate.** A cash-out always pays out *exactly* its fair share — destroying the same fraction of supply that it withdraws in WETH — so the ratio of what's left never changes. That's a direct mathematical consequence of how the payout is defined, true for any sequence of redemptions, not a policy that could be quietly reversed later.
* **Everything else that feeds the Floor is designed to raise it, and normally does.** Sell tax and the Treasury's share are pure WETH coming in with no new LOOT minted against them, so they always raise the rate. The Printer's expansion proceeds (see [The Peg & The Printer](/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/the-peg-and-the-printer.md)) are designed the same way, but carry one disclosed edge case: its sell-off only has to clear 95% of fair value, not 100%. In the worst allowed case, and only once the Floor is already funding a large chunk of peg, that specific event could shave a hair off the rate instead of raising it. This hasn't happened in any testing so far — it's a known, narrow limit of the current design, not something observed to break.

## Where the Floor's money comes from

The Floor gets fed from three separate directions, so it doesn't depend on any one mechanism staying active:

1. **The Printer's sale proceeds** — most of the WETH raised when new LOOT is sold during an [above-target creation event](/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/the-peg-and-the-printer.md).
2. **The below-target sell tax** — 75% of the extra cost collected on sells while LOOT trades under target (see [Trading & Dynamic Fees](/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/trading-and-dynamic-fees.md)).
3. **Treasury payouts** — 40% of every payout the [Treasury](/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/the-treasury.md) makes.

## Why cashing out is free

A cash-out fee would mean the number this page quotes is worth slightly less than it says — the payout rate would overstate what you actually walk away with. Charging nothing keeps the number exactly equal to what you actually receive, no fine print.

## Why this matters

The Floor is what turns LOOT's target price into an actual floor, not just a hope. No matter where LOOT trades in the open market, every holder always has a guaranteed, no-permission-needed exit at the payout rate — one that redemptions can never lower, and that's otherwise built to climb, funded by the very trading activity that would otherwise be pure speculation.

Next: [The Hideout](/the-heist-docs/how-it-works/the-hideout.md) — where MERRY holders stake to earn a share of the new LOOT that helps build this Floor.


---

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