Memecoin rug checker: how to check a memecoin for rugs

How to check a memecoin for rugs in about 60 seconds on Solana: mint and freeze, top 10, dev, bundle, snipers, liquidity, Alpha score and tracked traders.

Bad news first: no check catches every rug. This one catches the lazy ones in about a minute, and the end of this page says what gets past it.

The order is the one we use after years of being the exit. Cheap checks first. One bad line saves you the other 50 seconds.

Rug checks on every new pair's card: pump.fun new pairs, live.

Where to read the checks

• Trenches card: the third line holds the Alpha score, the pills and the top reason. Hover a pill on a computer, tap it on a phone. It has no liquidity figure, so it is a first pass only.
• Token page: the card on the right leads with the score. Read more opens the sheet with For, Against, Indicators (the same pills) and All facts.

What each pill measures is in Holder checks. This page is what to do with them.

The rug check, step by step

1. Mint and freeze. Open All facts. You want Mint authority at Revoked, Freeze authority at None and Transfers at Allowed. Live or Blocked ends the check. Not read yet means nobody has checked. The score only reacts to a reading, so a token can carry a score with these rows blank.
2. Top 10 share. Over 30% the pill goes warning colour and Against reads like "Top wallets own 41%". At 50% it is a red flag and the score cannot go above 25. Curve, pool and burn are left out, so this is wallets that can sell.
3. Dev. The pill shows the dev's share, or DS once the dev has sold. Over 5% is a warning. Over 20% is a red flag. A dev wallet first funded in the last 24 hours warns too. Full read: Dev wallet check.
4. Bundle. Hover the pill: "Bundle holds 12%, most 41%, 9 wallets". Over 20% still held is a warning, and the line is "Insiders bought at launch". A most far above the current share means they are selling. Full read: Bundles and insiders.
5. Snipers. The pill reads like 14 · 8%: wallets that bought in the first 60 seconds, and the share they still hold. Over 20% is a warning. The score starts taking points at 10%.
6. Liquidity. On the token page, read Liq beside Market cap. No rule scores it, so this one is your call: can that pool take your sell? A ~ in front means one source only, unconfirmed. "Almost no money in the pool." in the summary means liquidity under 3% of market cap. The summary only says one thing at a time, so its silence proves nothing.
7. Alpha score and reasons. Read the band, then Against before For. At 25 or lower, look at Red flags under What makes the score. Points off there mean a red flag is holding the score down. How the groups work: Alpha score.
8. What tracked traders did. Who's in opens with a count like "6 tracked · 2 holding". Traders who left are marked Sold. In the Trades tab, pick Cluster to see the order they bought and sold. A tracked buy is a reason to keep reading, not a safety check. Tracked traders get rugged too.

All facts. The word says Good while Top 10 share says Not read yet. Read the rows, not the word.

Walk away or yellow flag

The sheet tags every line under Against: High risk for a trap, Watch for the rest. These are the calls we make from those tags. They are ours, not advice.

Walk away. All six carry High risk:

• "Creator can print more"
• "Your tokens can be frozen"
• "You can't sell it"
• "Top wallets own 54%", at 50% or more
• "Dev owns a big chunk", over 20%
• "Dev sold, still holds lots", with the dev still over 20%

Two lines tagged Watch that we treat the same way:

• "Bots bought most": first-minute wallets still hold half the supply or more.
• "Red flag caps it": the score is capped. If none of the lines above explains it, the cause can be the dev's rug rate or tracked traders selling. Find out which before you touch it.

Yellow flag. Keep reading, and count them:

• Holders: "Top wallets own 38%" (30% up to 50%), "Bots bought a lot", "Linked wallets own a lot", "Insiders bought at launch", "New wallets among top holders".
• Dev: "Dev owns a lot", "Dev has sold", "Dev sold out", "Brand new dev wallet", "Dev has made 14 tokens", "Dev's tokens never took off".
• Identity and volume: "Logo copied from elsewhere", "Links copied from elsewhere", "Its X is borrowed", "Looks like fake volume".

Yellows stack. On a token with no score yet, the heavier lines count 2 and the pattern lines 1, and five points reads Risky. Three yellows telling one story are not three small problems. They are one big one.

What a rug check cannot catch

• Missing is not clean. A dim pill, a pill that is not drawn and Not read yet are checks that did not happen. They are not passes.
• Moved tokens. Transfers are not on our tape. Tokens sent to another wallet still count with the buyer, and a sell from that new wallet is not a dev or bundle sell.
• Side wallets. DS reads the creator and the launching wallet. A dev selling from anything else does not show.
• Small crews. Insiders reads the top 20 holders only. A bag split below the top 20 is out of frame.
• Token-2022 extras. The page checks printing, freezing and blocked transfers. It does not show a transfer fee, a transfer hook or a permanent delegate.
• Mayhem. Neither Safety nor the score looks at it. Check for the red Mayhem badge yourself. Why it matters.
• The next ten minutes. Every figure is now. A Good at your entry can read Risky while you are still reading this.
• Plain bad luck. A token can pass every line and still go to zero because nobody else showed up.

A clean check promises nothing. It only means you did not ape into the obvious.

Before you send it

• Open All facts when the score looks good. That is when you stop reading.
• Read Against before For. One High risk line beats three nice ones.
• Check Liq against what you would need to sell, not what you plan to buy.
• Look at Who's in last. If the tracked money left, guess who the exit liquidity is.
• Set your exits before you need them.
• Want to practise this first? Practice reads the same pills on the same tokens.