What is a rug pull on Solana?

What a rug pull is on Solana, the five mechanisms behind most of them, how to tell whether a token carries those risks, and what no check rules out.

RugSignal editorial notes · Published 2026-10-30 · Updated 2026-10-30 · Source-based, not investment advice.

What is a rug pull?

A rug pull is when the people behind a token use control they kept to take value from buyers, leaving them with a token they cannot sell for anything close to what they paid. The control can be the right to mint new supply, the right to freeze holders' accounts, the ability to withdraw the pool's liquidity, or a large share of supply held quietly across many wallets. What makes it a rug pull is the use of that retained control against buyers, not a falling price on its own: tokens also fail through lost interest, a bad market or an abandoned project.

Can Solana be rug pulled?

The Solana network itself is not rug pulled, but individual Solana tokens can be. Creating a token on Solana is cheap and permissionless, and launchpads make it possible to launch one in minutes, so many tokens are created by people nobody can identify. Every Solana token records some of its controls on-chain, though, which means several rug-pull risks can be read before you buy: who holds the mint and freeze authorities, where the liquidity sits and how concentrated the supply is.

Mechanism 1: an active mint authority

If the mint authority is still set, the address holding it can create new units at any time and sell them into the pool, diluting every holder. A revoked mint authority removes that one risk permanently but says nothing about the others. The mint and freeze authorities guide explains how to read both fields and what revocation does and does not establish.

Mechanism 2: an active freeze authority

If the freeze authority is still set, the address holding it can freeze individual token accounts so their owners cannot sell, while unfrozen wallets keep trading. Token-2022 mints can also make new accounts start frozen. Some legitimate issuers, such as regulated stablecoins, keep a freeze authority for compliance, so the same field needs context rather than an automatic verdict.

Mechanism 3: withdrawable liquidity

Whoever controls a pool's LP tokens or liquidity positions can withdraw the pool's principal, which leaves holders with almost nothing to sell into. Burned or time-locked LP removes or delays that risk for the affected share of one pool only; other pools, unlock dates and position-based pools such as Meteora DLMM need their own checks. The locked liquidity guide covers what a lock does and does not prove.

Mechanism 4: concentrated or connected holders selling

Even with every authority revoked and liquidity locked, a small group holding a large share of supply can sell into the pool and collapse the price. That group is often spread across many wallets funded from the same source so that no single wallet looks large. Funding links are evidence worth investigating, not proof of common ownership, which the holder clusters guide explains.

Mechanism 5: a bundled launch

In a bundled launch, the creator or associated wallets buy a large share of supply in the token's first block, before anyone else can trade, and sell it later to buyers who arrive after them. Buying in the launch slot is not proof of coordination by itself, because independent bots also target new tokens. What matters is how much of the supply those launch-slot buyers still hold, which the bundle checker guide shows how to read.

How to tell if a Solana coin is a rug pull

You cannot tell in advance whether a token will be rugged, but you can check whether the controls that make a rug pull possible are present. Start from the exact mint address, not a name or ticker. Read the mint and freeze authorities, check who controls the main pool's liquidity, look at how much supply the largest holders and the launching wallet hold, and see how much launch-slot buyers still hold. The step-by-step checklist walks through each check, and a scan records each one with its source and observation time.

How to reduce the risk

No method avoids every rug pull, but some habits reduce the damage one can do. Check the controls above before buying rather than after the price moves. Treat an unknown result as unknown, not as a pass. Size each position to what you can afford to lose entirely, and compare the pool's liquidity with the amount you might need to sell. Never sign a transaction or connect a wallet to check a token: reading a mint needs only its public address.

What no check can tell you

On-chain checks show what is possible, not what anyone intends. A token with revoked authorities, burned LP and spread-out holders can still fail when its team abandons it or its market dries up, and a token with active controls may be run by an honest issuer. Risk scores from different tools use different methods and are not fraud probabilities. RugSignal's own limitations, and why its predictive accuracy is not yet independently established, are published on the accuracy page.

Frequently asked questions

What is a rug pull on Solana?

A rug pull is when the people behind a token use control they kept, such as minting rights, freeze rights, pool liquidity or a large hidden supply, to take value from buyers and leave them holding a token they cannot sell for much. What is a rug pull?

Can Solana be rug pulled?

The Solana network itself is not rug pulled; individual tokens on it can be, because anyone can create a token and keep authorities, liquidity or supply that let them take value from buyers. Can Solana be rug pulled?

How can you tell if a coin is a rug pull?

You cannot know in advance, but you can check the controls that make one possible: active mint or freeze authority, withdrawable liquidity, concentrated or connected holders and a heavily bundled launch. How to tell if a Solana coin is a rug pull

How do you avoid a rug pull in crypto?

No method avoids every rug pull; checking authorities, liquidity control and holder concentration before buying, sizing positions to what you can lose and never signing unknown transactions reduce the risk. How to reduce the risk

Sources and further reading

Official protocol documentation explains capabilities; it does not certify an individual token. RugSignal-specific statements describe our current implementation.

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