Guides · 5 min read

How to spot a Solana rug pull before you buy

Most rugs on Solana use the same few setups, and each one shows up in public data before it happens. Run these checks on any coin before you buy, in this order.

The 60-second check

1. Mint authority is revoked. If it's still active, the dev can mint new tokens and sell them into the pool, diluting everyone who bought.
2. Freeze authority is revoked. If it's active, the dev can freeze your tokens. You can buy, but you can't sell.
3. Liquidity is burned or locked, and there's enough of it. Unlocked LP can be pulled in one transaction. With under about $5,000 in the pool, any real sell crashes the price.
4. The top 10 wallets don't hold too much. Leave out pools and lockers. Above 25% is a warning; above 40%, a handful of wallets decide the price.
5. The dev isn't sitting on a big bag. A creator wallet holding more than 10% of the supply can sell into buyers at any time.
6. No insider cluster. Wallets linked by transfers tend to sell together. Bundled launches often show up this way.
7. No hidden token powers. Coins made with Solana's newer token program can carry a transfer tax, a transfer hook, a permanent delegate or a pause switch. On a memecoin, each one deserves a hard look.
8. The context makes sense. Coins under 15 minutes old are the riskiest. Heavy one-sided selling, no socials and a dev who has launched dozens of coins all add risk.

Where to find each check

• Mint and freeze authority: the token's page on an explorer such as Solscan, or RugCheck.
• Holders, dev wallet, insiders and LP locks: the coin's RugCheck report.
• Liquidity, volume and pool age: DexScreener.

That's three tabs for every coin. Trench Scout reads all of it for you the moment you open a coin on Padre, pump.fun or DexScreener, and turns it into one score from 0 to 100 with every deduction explained.

What a clean result doesn't mean

Passing every check means the common rug setups aren't there. It doesn't mean the coin is safe or that it will go up. A dev can still sell from wallets that look unrelated, a group can dump together, and socials can be faked. Checks help you skip the obvious traps; position size protects you from the rest.

Three habits that save money

• Check every coin, including the ones callers post. Some callers are paid to post coins.
• Never connect your wallet to a “checker”. Checking a coin needs only its address. A site that asks you to connect or sign is a drainer.
• Don't trust screenshots. Run the check yourself; a screenshot can be old or edited.