Taiyo Robotics

Taiyo Robotics (TYR) is a Solana NFT collection of 2,121 pixel-art robots. It is not one of the Japanese firms that share the Taiyo name. The robots were minted in late 2021. When the first team lost interest, a holder took the project over that December. Today it is the home NFT of Graphite Protocol. Holders stake their robots to earn the Graphite (GP) token. They also get a cut of the fees from Graphite's launchpads.

Those launchpads set Taiyo apart from most 2021 collections. Graphite runs the tech behind LetsBonk.fun, a memecoin launchpad it co-owns with Bonk Bonk$0.00000315+0.2%. Part of the revenue buys back and burns GP.

Taiyo Robotics history: the 2021 derug and SolportTom

Taiyo Robotics launched with a story about robots built to fight giant monsters. Soon after the mint, the founders lost interest and the floor price fell to about 2 SOL.

Then SolportTom took over the whole collection, per Alchemy's overview of Solana NFTs. He owned Solsteads, another Solana collection, and was active in the Taiyo community. Taiyo's own account dates the "official derug" to December 2021 (X, September 2026).

The new team set out to build a business that pays holders, rather than one that lives on new mints. In July 2025, ChainCatcher named Tom Solport as head of Graphite Protocol. The Graphite whitepaper is still published under the Solport name.

Taiyo Gen1 Robots, Taiyo Infants and Taiyo Oil

The whitepaper treats the three collections as one brand, not three projects.

• Gen1 Robots are the original 2,121 robots and the main staking asset.
• Gen2 Taiyo Infants have the same utility at a third of the weight: three Infants earn what one Gen1 earns.
• Taiyo Oil was airdropped to Gen1 and Gen2 holders. It first served as whitelist access for partner mints. It now works as a burnable booster.

Gen1 Robots also carry weight in GP tier staking, described below, where holding Gen1s lowers the GP needed to reach each tier.

How Taiyo NFT staking works

Taiyo NFT staking uses a "milestone" model, introduced in February 2023 (whitepaper). The longer an NFT stays staked, the higher its daily GP emissions climb. You can claim rewards every day without losing your place. Unstaking, though, sends the NFT back to day one and the lowest emission rate when you stake it again.

Burning Oil adds a permanent boost to a chosen NFT:

• a 5L can adds 5% to emissions, and a 10L can adds 10%;
• a standard Gen1 or Gen2 is capped at a 15% boost (three 5L cans, or one 10L plus one 5L);
• a Legendary 1/1 can reach 20%.

Burning destroys the Oil for good, so a boost cannot be moved to another NFT.

Graphite (GP) tier staking and fee sharing for Taiyo holders

Separately from NFT staking, the GP tier staking portal lets holders lock GP for three months. In return they earn a share of tokens and fees from launches on Solana. The portal says most rewards currently come from Bonk.live launches.

The portal splits Graphite's service fee from those launches as follows:

• 60% to GP lockers;
• 20% to Taiyo NFTs;
• 10% to liquidity-pool rewards;
• 10% to a launchpool, where users swap GP for the launch token at a discount and the swapped GP is burned.

The five tiers mix GP and Gen1 holdings. Shrimp needs 1 GP. Koi needs 1 GP plus one Gen1. Seal needs 10,000 GP, or 5,000 GP plus one Gen1. Dolphin needs 35,000 GP, or 15,000 GP plus three Gen1s. Whale needs 100,000 GP, or 50,000 GP plus four Gen1s.

What is Graphite Protocol? LetsBonk.fun, Bonk.live and Parallel.bot

Graphite Protocol began in 2023 as a toolkit for NFT creators. The plan was a no-code minting suite, a launchpad and on-chain casino games (whitepaper). Its current site now lists three products:

• LetsBonk.fun is a self-serve memecoin launchpad and a joint venture with BONK. Graphite's site lists a 38% ownership stake and sends 7.6% of all LetsBonk revenue to buying back and burning GP. ChainCatcher reported that Graphite supplies the platform's technical infrastructure.
• Bonk.live is a curated launchpad for token generation events, also run with BONK. Graphite lists Streamflow, Sonic and Simon's Cat among its launches and says the rewards structure is being revamped.
• Parallel.bot is listed as "coming soon." It is billed as an AI-assisted copytrading platform for liquidity positions and perpetual futures, with a Meteora DLMM module in beta.

Our Lightspeed coverage of the Solana launchpad wars explains the market LetsBonk competes in.

Graphite (GP) token and tokenomics

GP has a total supply of 150 million (whitepaper). It replaced Taiyo's earlier SCRAP token. SCRAP holders could convert through a vesting "shards" program, which is now closed. GP went on public sale in a February 2023 IDO. Buyers paid in USDC, and the price fell the longer they agreed to vest. Before that, private investors bought 5% of supply at $0.20, vesting over 18 months.

Graphite's site breaks the supply down as follows:

• 21% for staking emissions;
• 18.94% for the team, vested;
• 3% for liquidity;
• 57.06% in circulation.

As of October 2026, its tracker counted about 2.9 million GP bought back from LetsBonk revenue, or 4.7% of supply burnt.

On October 6, 2026, Graphite posted that it had spent eight months working "behind the scenes" and was entering "the new phase" of GP. It promised more on new revenue plans (X). It has not yet said what that phase includes.

Taiyo Pilots and Faction Wars

Taiyo Pilots is a separate collection under the Taiyo brand. It has two kinds of NFT, Pilots and Cores, set in a made-up Lunar City. Pilots belong to one of four factions: Rebels, Enforcers, Operators or Resistance. Each faction has its own points token, earned next to GP. The whitepaper sets aside 15% of GP emissions for Pilots.

Faction Wars v1 is a beta game you mostly leave running. Pilots go on daily missions, and the ones that survive split a pot of GP.

Is Taiyo Robotics a good fit for you?

Taiyo suits collectors who want exposure to Graphite's launchpad revenue through an NFT, and who plan to hold for months rather than days. Milestone staking rewards patience. Gen1s also lower the GP needed for higher staking tiers. For a smaller budget, Infants offer the same staking utility at a third of the weight.

It suits active traders poorly. Unstaking to sell resets your milestone, and GP tier staking locks tokens for three months. If you only want exposure to LetsBonk's buybacks, holding GP directly avoids NFT market risk. You give up the 20% fee share reserved for Taiyo NFTs and the Gen1 tier discounts.

Taiyo Robotics risks: what can go wrong

• Revenue depends on memecoin launches. GP buybacks and staking rewards come mainly from LetsBonk.fun and Bonk.live fees. When memecoin launch activity slows, so do the buybacks.
• No published audit found. We found no public audit of the Taiyo staking or GP tier-staking contracts. The docs we read don't list their program addresses either, so we could not check who can upgrade them. Treat the contracts as controlled by the team.
• Irreversible choices. Oil burns are permanent, unstaking resets your milestone, and GP deposits are locked for three months.
• Team concentration and delays. 18.94% of GP sits with the team under vesting. The whitepaper also records earlier delays it put down to "health issues and restructuring within the team."
• Roadmap drift. Several 2023 plans, such as casino games and the no-code suite, gave way to the Bonk launchpads. Parallel.bot has no live value-accrual model for GP yet.
• Thin NFT liquidity. A collection of 2,121 NFTs trades in small volumes, so selling quickly at the floor is not guaranteed.

Where to buy Taiyo Robotics NFTs

You can buy Gen1 robots on Solana NFT marketplaces such as Magic Eden ME$0.063+1.0% and Tensor TNSR$0.030+0.5%. The whitepaper also points to Hyperspace. Before you buy, check that the listing is from the verified collection.