How to spot a rug pull on Solana

A rug pull is when the people behind a token take the money and leave holders with something they can't sell or that's worth nothing. You can't catch every rug, but these nine checks catch most of the lazy ones. They take a minute, and a free token scanner or Alf can run most of them for you.

Token settings

1. Mint authority. If it's still active, someone can print new tokens and sell them into the pool. It should be revoked.
2. Freeze authority. If it's active, the issuer can freeze your token account so you can't sell. It should be revoked.
3. Token-2022 extensions. Many new Solana tokens use the Token-2022 program, which allows extra features. Be careful with a permanent delegate (someone can move your tokens), a transfer fee (a cut of every sell), a transfer hook (custom code runs on every transfer, which can block sells) and default frozen accounts.

Liquidity

4. How deep is it? Thin liquidity means your own sell will crash the price.
5. Can the LP be pulled? On graduated tokens, check whether the pool's liquidity is locked or burned, or sits in a wallet that could remove it.

Holders and trading

6. Holder concentration. If a few wallets (excluding the pool) hold a large share, they decide the price.
7. Bundled launch. Many fresh wallets buying in the same block as the launch usually means the dev bought their own supply.
8. Real sellers. A healthy token has people selling as well as buying. Only buys, or only a few wallets trading back and forth, suggests fake volume or a honeypot.
9. The dev wallet's history. A wallet that has launched and dumped a string of tokens will probably do it again.

After you buy

Even a clean token can dump. Use a stop-loss (auto exits), and when you're done with a token, close the empty account to get your rent back.

Memecoins are extremely risky. Most go to zero, often within hours. Nothing on this page is financial advice. Only trade what you can afford to lose.