How to check a new token for a rug pull: the 3 checks we run

Every New Pair card on the channel prints the same three checks: is the liquidity locked or burned, has the mint authority been revoked, and how much of the supply sits in the 10 largest wallets. This guide shows how to run those checks yourself, in a block explorer, in about five minutes. It also shows what they cannot see, because passing all three does not make a token safe. It only rules out the most common ways a new token is emptied.

What a rug pull is

A rug pull is when the people behind a token take the money that buyers put in and leave. On a new token that usually happens in one of three ways: they withdraw the liquidity from the trading pool, they mint new tokens and sell them into the pool, or they sell a large share of the supply they kept for themselves. Each of the three checks below looks at one of those doors.

The numbers are not small. Chainalysis counted rug pulls as 37% of all crypto scam revenue in 2021, more than $2.8 billion, up from 1% the year before. Most of that figure came from a single case, the Turkish exchange Thodex, which is a reminder that the label covers very different things. This guide is about the on-chain kind: fresh tokens on decentralised exchanges.

The three checks at a glance

Each check closes one door. None of them closes all of them, which is why we run all three and still call the risk high.

Check 1: is the liquidity locked or burned?

When a token launches on a decentralised exchange, someone deposits the token and a second asset (SOL, ETH or a stablecoin) into a pool. In return they receive LP tokens, a receipt for their share of that pool. Whoever holds the LP tokens can withdraw the pool. If the deployer keeps them, they can pull the liquidity at any moment, and the token can no longer be sold for anything.

There are two ways to take that option away:

• Burned: the LP tokens are sent to an address nobody controls. The liquidity can never be withdrawn. This is permanent.
• Locked: the LP tokens are held by a locker contract until a set date. Until then nobody can withdraw; after that date, the owner can. A lock is only as good as its end date, so always read it.

How to check: open the pool from the token's page on the DEX or on RugCheck, find the LP token, and look at who holds it in the explorer. A burn shows up as the LP tokens sitting at a burn address. A lock shows up as a locker contract, with an unlock date you can read. Some newer pool types give the liquidity provider a position token instead of LP tokens; the question is the same: who can withdraw, and when.

Check 2: has the mint authority been revoked?

On Solana, every token has a mint authority: the account allowed to create new tokens. If that authority is still set, the holder can mint any amount and sell it into the pool, which dilutes everyone else to nothing. When the authority is revoked, the token page shows it as empty, and the supply can never grow again. Solana tokens also have a freeze authority, which can freeze any holder's token account so it cannot move. For a memecoin, you want both empty.

On Ethereum and other EVM chains there is no single field to read. You open the verified contract and look for two things: a function that can mint after launch, and the owner. Many tokens use the standard Ownable pattern, where owner-only functions stop working once ownership is renounced and the owner becomes the zero address. Renounced ownership only helps if the dangerous functions are owner-only. If the contract is not verified, you cannot read it at all, and that is a red flag on its own.

Check 3: how much do the top 10 wallets hold?

The third door is the supply someone already holds. If a handful of wallets own a large share, any one of them can sell into the pool and move the price far more than ordinary buyers can.

The raw top 10 is misleading, so clean it first. Take out the pool itself (it holds the tokens that are for sale), burn addresses, locker contracts and exchange wallets. What is left is the share held by private wallets, and that is the number that matters. Explorers label many exchange wallets; RugCheck labels the pools for Solana tokens. Supply held by the team or investors under a vesting contract is a separate question: see how locked supply reaches the market when tokens unlock.

Be aware of what this check cannot see. One person can split a position across dozens of wallets, so a clean top 10 does not prove the supply is spread out. Wallets funded from the same source at the same time are worth a second look.

What the checks show on three real tokens

Here are the same checks run on three well-known memecoins on October 20, 2026. These are old, widely traded tokens, not new pairs, so they show what healthy answers look like and why the raw numbers need reading.

SOL, the coin these Solana tokens trade against, is not a token you check this way. It is the network's own coin, issued by the protocol, so there is no mint authority or deployer to look for.

Notice what the top 10 column does on its own: all three would look concentrated. Once you see that the biggest wallets belong to an exchange, or hold several unrelated tokens at once, the picture changes. That is why the check is "who holds it", not just "how much".

The PEPE contract also shows why the owner matters. Its verified source has two owner-only functions, a blacklist and a trading rule. With ownership renounced to the zero address, nobody can call either of them any more.

What the three checks don't catch

Passing all three checks still leaves real risks. The most common ones:

• Sell blocks and taxes. On EVM chains a contract can let you buy but stop you from selling, or take most of the sale as a fee. Read the contract or test a tiny sell first.
• Token-2022 extensions on Solana. Newer Solana tokens can carry extensions such as transfer fees, transfer hooks or a permanent delegate that can move tokens out of any wallet. The token page lists them.
• Upgradeable contracts. If a contract sits behind a proxy, its code can be replaced after you check it.
• Hidden insiders. Supply split across many fresh wallets passes the top 10 check and can still be sold at once.
• Mutable metadata. If the name, symbol or image can still be changed, the token can be made to look like something else.
• Plain price risk. A token with burned liquidity and no mint can still fall 99% because buyers leave. The checks are about theft, not value, so size a speculative token so a zero doesn't hurt.

A fresh DEX pair is also a very different place from a regulated venue. For the difference, see buying on a licensed exchange vs a fresh DEX pair.

A five-minute routine

1. Find the token by its contract address, never by its name or ticker: copies are common.
2. Open it on RugCheck (Solana) or on Etherscan or the chain's explorer (EVM).
3. Read the mint and freeze authority, or the owner and the mint functions in the verified contract.
4. Open the pool and find who holds the LP tokens: burn address, locker with a date, or a wallet.
5. Open the holders list, remove pools, burns, lockers and exchanges, and see what share is left in private wallets.
6. Write down what the checks cannot see, from the list above, before you decide anything.

FAQ

What does rug pull mean in crypto?

It means the people behind a token take the money buyers put in and disappear, usually by withdrawing the liquidity, minting new tokens or selling a large share of the supply they kept.

Is there a rug pull checker?

Tools such as RugCheck for Solana read the same on-chain fields described here and show them in one report. They are a good start, but they read data; they do not judge intent. Treat any score as a summary of the checks, not as a verdict.

What does mint authority revoked mean?

It means no account can create more of the token. On Solana the mint authority field is empty, so the supply is fixed for good.

What does liquidity locked mean?

It means the LP tokens are held by a locker contract until a set date, so nobody can withdraw the pool before then. After the date, the owner can. Burned liquidity, by contrast, can never be withdrawn.

Can a token with locked or burned liquidity still rug?

Yes. If the mint authority is still active, new tokens can be minted and sold into the pool. If a few wallets hold most of the supply, they can sell into it. On EVM chains a contract can also block selling. That is why the checks only work together, and why even all three together don't make a token safe.