How to spot a rug-pull token
Crypto's signature scam. The token launches, attracts investment, then the developers vanish with the liquidity.
What it is
A rug pull is a crypto scam where the token's developers retain control of the liquidity pool, attract investors, then withdraw all the liquidity at once and disappear. The token's market value drops to zero in minutes.
Contract red flags
(1) Mintable supply: the contract owner can mint unlimited new tokens. (2) Owner-pausable transfers: the owner can freeze trading at will. (3) Owner-can-change-balance functions: the owner can adjust any wallet's balance. (4) Concentrated ownership: more than 20 percent of the supply held by the deployer. (5) Closed-source contract: the source code is not verified, so the trading logic is opaque. (6) Ownership not renounced or burned. Each of these alone is yellow; three together is red.
Liquidity red flags
(1) Liquidity locked for less than 30 days. (2) Liquidity provider can withdraw without time-lock. (3) Recently created pair (less than 24 hours old). (4) Single liquidity provider holds more than 95 percent of the LP tokens.
What to do
Never buy a token within 24 hours of its launch. Run AVA on the contract address before any purchase: AVA produces a 0-to-100 trust score with explainable reasoning. See the public how-it-works summary for our methodology overview.
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📚 Read the full lesson at AVA Academy
This page is a quick spotter card. The full plain-English lesson lives in the AVA Academy. Read the Rug-Pull Token lesson → or browse all 9 lessons.