The Complete Solana Rug Check Workflow: From Alert to Confident Buy
Published in Safety — 12 min read
I’ve been analyzing Solana memecoins for over two years now. In that time, I’ve watched hundreds of tokens go to zero
within minutes of launch—and I’ve seen traders lose five- and six-figure sums because they skipped a single
verification step. The difference between the people who survive in this market and those who don’t isn’t luck. It’s
process.
What I’m sharing today is the exact solana rug check workflow I run on every token before I commit a
single dollar. It’s seven steps, it takes about ten minutes once you get fast, and it has saved me from more scams
than I can count. If you’re trading Solana memecoins without a systematic safety process, you’re gambling blindly.
Let’s fix that.
If you’re brand new to rug pulls, start with our primer on
how to spot a rug pull on Solana
first, then come back here for the full operational workflow.
Why You Need a Workflow, Not Just a Tool
Most traders treat safety checking as a single action: paste a contract address into a scanner, glance at the score,
and buy. That approach fails because no single tool catches everything. Automated scanners miss social engineering.
On-chain analysis misses off-chain manipulation. A proper solana token safety workflow layers
multiple checks so that what one step misses, the next one catches.
Think of it like airport security. The metal detector alone isn’t enough. You need the X-ray, the ID check, the
behavioral observation, and sometimes the secondary screening. Each layer adds confidence. Here’s mine.
Step 1: Automated Safety Score — Your First Filter
What to use
TokenRadar for real-time safety badges, or RugCheck.xyz for a detailed
breakdown report. I use both.
What to look for
When a token hits your radar—whether through a live feed, a Telegram alpha group, or a Twitter call—the
first thing you do is run it through an automated memecoin safety checker. These tools analyze the
token’s smart contract configuration and return a risk assessment.
A RugCheck report typically evaluates:
- Mint authority status — Can new tokens be created out of thin air?
- Freeze authority status — Can the deployer freeze your tokens in your wallet?
- Top holder concentration — Is one wallet sitting on a dangerous percentage of supply?
- LP status — Is liquidity locked or burnable?
- Metadata mutability — Can the token’s name, symbol, or image be changed post-launch?
Pass vs. Fail
| Signal | Pass | Fail |
|---|---|---|
| Overall risk level | Low / Medium risk | High / Critical risk |
| Known exploit patterns | None detected | Any known exploit flagged |
| Contract verification | Standard SPL token or known program | Custom program with unverified logic |
Key insight: An automated “Safe” score is necessary but not sufficient. It means the contract
configuration looks clean. It tells you nothing about the humans behind the project. That’s what the
remaining six steps are for.
Step 2: Authority Verification — Who Holds the Keys?
What to use
Solscan or Solana Explorer. If you’re unfamiliar with reading blockchain explorers, our guide on
how to read Solscan like a pro walks through
every field.
What to look for
Navigate to the token’s mint account on Solscan. Check two critical fields:
-
Mint Authority: This should be
null(revoked). If an active wallet address is listed,
the deployer can mint unlimited new tokens at any time, inflating supply and crashing the price. Immediate
disqualification. -
Freeze Authority: This should also be
null. If active, the deployer can freeze tokens
in any holder’s wallet, preventing them from selling. This is one of the most common rug mechanics on Solana.
Pass vs. Fail
Both authorities revoked = pass. Either authority active = hard fail, walk away. There is no gray area here. Some
traders argue that early-stage projects “need” mint authority for tokenomics. They don’t. Legitimate projects revoke
before public trading begins.
Step 3: Holder Analysis — Follow the Concentration
What to use
Solscan’s “Holders” tab, Birdeye holder analytics, or TokenRadar’s holder concentration data.
What to look for
Pull up the top holders list and analyze two things: concentration and clustering.
Concentration:
- Does any single non-program wallet hold more than 5% of supply? Caution.
- Do the top 10 wallets (excluding LP and program accounts) control more than 30% of supply? Danger.
- Is the deployer wallet still holding a significant bag? Major red flag.
Cluster detection:
- Were multiple top wallets funded from the same source wallet? Check transaction histories.
- Did several wallets buy at nearly identical times and amounts? Coordinated accumulation.
- Do top wallets show zero activity outside this token? Likely sybil wallets created for this rug.
Pass vs. Fail
Healthy distribution with organic-looking wallets = pass. Concentrated supply in a cluster of fresh wallets with
identical patterns = fail. If you see the deployer still holding more than 2-3% post-launch, treat it as a yellow
flag at minimum.
Step 4: Liquidity Assessment — Can You Actually Exit?
What to use
Raydium or Orca pool explorers, DexScreener liquidity data, or LP token trackers.
Liquidity is the most misunderstood concept in memecoin trading. For a thorough explanation, read our breakdown on
what liquidity means in crypto.
What to look for
-
LP Lock Status: Are the liquidity provider tokens locked in a time-lock contract, or burned? If
they’re sitting in the deployer’s wallet, unlocked, the deployer can pull all liquidity at any moment. This is the
classic rug pull mechanic. -
Lock Duration: A 7-day lock is nearly meaningless. Look for 90+ days minimum. Burned LP tokens are
ideal—liquidity can never be removed. -
Pool Depth: Even with locked liquidity, check the actual dollar value in the pool. A $2,000
liquidity pool for a token with a $500K market cap means massive slippage on any meaningful sell. You’ll lose 30-50%
just trying to exit. -
Single-sided vs. Paired: Verify liquidity is paired (SOL/TOKEN), not single-sided. Single-sided
pools can be a manipulation vector.
Pass vs. Fail
| Criterion | Pass | Caution | Fail |
|---|---|---|---|
| LP lock | Burned or locked 90+ days | Locked 30-89 days | Unlocked or locked <30 days |
| Pool depth | >$50K paired liquidity | $10K-$50K | <$10K |
| Liquidity-to-MCap ratio | >10% | 5-10% | <5% |
For more on how token unlock events interact with liquidity, see our article on
token vesting and unlock schedules on Solana.
Step 5: Deployer Wallet Forensics — Who Built This?
What to use
Solscan wallet history, Arkham Intelligence (if available), and manual transaction tracing.
What to look for
Copy the deployer wallet address and investigate its full history:
-
Previous token deployments: Has this wallet launched other tokens? If yes, what happened to them?
If every previous token went to zero within 48 hours, you’re looking at a serial rugger. This is the single most
predictive data point in my workflow. -
Funding source: Where did the deployer get the SOL to create the token and seed liquidity? If it
came from a centralized exchange, it’s harder to trace but at least shows real capital. If it came from another
wallet that also deployed dead tokens, you’ve found a rug factory. -
Wallet age: A wallet created hours before token launch is a red flag. Established wallets with
months of diverse activity are more trustworthy. -
Post-launch behavior: Is the deployer actively selling? Check for a pattern of small, regular sells
(slow rug) versus holding.
Pass vs. Fail
Clean wallet history with no previous rugs, reasonable age, and no active selling = pass. Serial deployer with a trail
of dead tokens = instant fail. Fresh wallet with no history = proceed with extreme caution and tighter position sizing.
Step 6: Social Verification — Is the Community Real?
What to use
Twitter/X, Telegram, Discord. Manual inspection only—do not trust follower counts or member numbers at face
value.
What to look for
Fake communities are cheap to manufacture. Bot farms can generate 10,000 Telegram members for under $50. Here’s how
to tell the difference:
-
Twitter engagement quality: Real followers leave varied, contextual replies. Bots leave generic
hype comments (“LFG!”, fire emojis, “next 100x”) with no substance. Check if replying accounts have
posting history beyond shilling this one token. -
Telegram activity patterns: Real communities have off-topic chatter, questions, mild disagreements,
and conversations that don’t all revolve around price. Bot-filled groups show walls of identical hype messages with
no real dialogue. -
Team doxxing: Are the founders publicly identified with verifiable LinkedIn profiles, previous
projects, or conference appearances? Anonymous teams aren’t automatically bad, but they increase risk substantially. -
Website quality: Is there a real website with original content, or a template with placeholder
text? Check domain registration age via WHOIS—domains registered the same day as token launch are suspicious.
Pass vs. Fail
Genuine engagement from diverse, established accounts with a doxxed team = pass. Bot-filled socials, anonymous team,
template website, domain registered yesterday = fail. This step alone would have saved traders from the majority of
rugs I’ve tracked.
Step 7: Final Go/No-Go Decision
You’ve completed six layers of analysis. Now it’s decision time. I use a simple scoring framework:
The 7-Point Decision Matrix
| Step | Check | Result | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Automated Score | RugCheck / TokenRadar safety badge | Pass / Fail | Fail = stop immediately |
| 2. Authority | Mint & freeze authority revoked | Pass / Fail | Fail = stop immediately |
| 3. Holders | No dangerous concentration or clustering | Pass / Caution / Fail | Fail = stop; Caution = reduce size |
| 4. Liquidity | LP locked/burned, adequate depth | Pass / Caution / Fail | Fail = stop; Caution = reduce size |
| 5. Deployer | Clean wallet history, no serial rugs | Pass / Caution / Fail | Fail = stop; Caution = reduce size |
| 6. Social | Real community, verifiable team | Pass / Caution / Fail | Fail = strong warning; Caution = reduce size |
| 7. Decision | Aggregate assessment | Go / No-Go | See rules below |
Decision Rules
- Any hard fail on Steps 1 or 2: Absolute no-go. These are non-negotiable. Walk away.
- Any hard fail on Steps 3-6: Default no-go unless you have strong conviction and are willing to treat it as a pure gamble with money you can lose entirely.
- All passes: Go, with standard position sizing (never more than you can lose).
- Mix of passes and cautions, zero fails: Go, but cut your position size by 50% for each caution flag.
- Two or more cautions: Reduce to minimum viable position or skip entirely.
This framework turns an emotional decision into a mechanical one. When your timeline is screaming that a token is
about to 100x and you feel the FOMO building, the matrix gives you something objective to fall back on.
Putting It All Together: A Real-World Example
Let me walk through how this plays out in practice. A token appears in my
TokenRadar live feed. Here’s my exact sequence:
- 0:00 — Copy the contract address. Paste into RugCheck. While it loads, open Solscan in another tab.
- 0:30 — RugCheck returns: Low risk. No exploit patterns. Step 1 pass.
- 1:00 — Solscan shows mint authority: null. Freeze authority: null. Step 2 pass.
- 2:00 — Holders tab: Top wallet (non-LP) holds 3.2%. Top 10 hold 18% combined. No obvious clustering. Step 3 pass.
- 3:30 — LP tokens: burned. Pool depth: $85K. Liquidity-to-MCap ratio: 14%. Step 4 pass.
- 5:00 — Deployer wallet: 8 months old, two previous token launches, both still actively trading with communities. No dump pattern. Step 5 pass.
- 8:00 — Twitter: 4,200 followers, diverse engagement, founder doxxed with LinkedIn. Telegram: 1,800 members with real conversations. Step 6 pass.
- 9:00 — Decision: All seven steps pass. Go with standard position size.
Total time: nine minutes. That’s nine minutes between you and a potential rug pull. Traders who skip this process to
“get in early” are the ones writing post-mortems on Twitter the next day.
Common Mistakes That Bypass the Workflow
Even disciplined traders slip up. Watch out for these:
-
“The influencer I trust called it.” Trust your process, not personalities. Influencers get paid to
shill. Run the workflow regardless. -
“It already 5x’d, it must be safe.” Price action proves nothing about contract safety. Some of the
most devastating rugs happen after significant pumps—that’s when the deployer has maximum liquidity to drain. -
“I’ll just put in a small amount.” A small loss is still a loss, and skipping your process once
makes it easier to skip again. The habit of rigor is more valuable than any single trade. -
“RugCheck said Safe, so I’m good.” Automated tools are Step 1 of 7, not the entire process.
Over-reliance on a single tool is how sophisticated scammers win. They build contracts that pass automated scans
while planning to rug through social engineering and market manipulation.
We covered a real scenario where this exact discipline paid off in
how a 5-minute safety check saved a portfolio.
Worth reading for the emotional context alone.
What to Do When You’ve Already Been Rugged
If you’re reading this after a loss rather than before one, first: don’t beat yourself up. Even experienced analysts
get caught occasionally. What matters is what you do next. We wrote a full
rug pull survival guide for Solana that
covers damage control, reporting, and recovery. The short version: document everything, report the contract address to
RugCheck and community blacklists, and use the experience to reinforce your commitment to this workflow.
Build the Habit, Not Just the Knowledge
Knowing these seven steps isn’t enough. You need to run them until they’re automatic. Print the decision matrix.
Bookmark your tools. Set up a browser workflow with Solscan, RugCheck, and
TokenRadar pinned in a tab group. The goal is to make the solana rug
check process so frictionless that skipping it feels harder than doing it.
The Solana memecoin market rewards speed, but it punishes recklessness far more severely. A methodical
solana token safety workflow won’t catch every scam—nothing will—but it will catch the
vast majority. And in a market where most participants lose money, “the vast majority” is more than enough edge to
change your outcomes permanently.
Stay safe out there. Run the process. Every single time.