How does a honeypot work?#
The trap is a one-way door. Buys succeed, so the price climbs and attracts more buyers; sells fail, or go through only after a huge fee, so only the creator can take profit.
Eventually the creator sells into the buyers. On Solana three token settings make this possible:
- Freeze authority. A token can keep an authority that freezes holders' token accounts, after which those tokens cannot be moved or sold.
- Mint authority. If kept, the creator can print new supply and sell it, diluting everyone else.
- Token extensions. Newer token standards support transfer fees and transfer hooks, which can be set up to tax or block transfers.
How to protect yourself from a honeypot#
Before buying, confirm that the freeze and mint authorities are revoked, check that wallets other than the creator have sold successfully, and be wary of a chart with many buys and almost no sells. Token-safety panels in most trading terminals run these checks; read what they flag rather than the overall score.
Coins created by a launchpad's own program, rather than by custom code, get that program's standard settings. That removes the most common levers.
The wider checklist, including dumps that need no token trick at all, is under rug pull and how to not get rugged.
Launchpad coins only on Fullport#
Fullport accounts trade only coins from allowlisted launchpads: pump.fun, Raydium LaunchLab and Meteora DBC, with each mint verified on-chain. Honeypots and other manufactured charts sit outside the tradeable set under the conduct rules. See the token rules and conduct.
Learning to read token-safety panels? Practice on live prices with a simulated balance: no wallet needed to start, it works in your phone's browser, and there is no KYC. Read how to trade memecoins first.
Quick answers
- How do you know if a token is a honeypot?
- Check that the token's freeze and mint authorities are revoked, look for successful sells from wallets other than the creator, and treat a chart with many buys but almost no sells as a warning. Simulating a small sell before buying size also helps.
- Can you sell a honeypot token?
- Usually not, or only at a loss so large it is pointless. That is the definition of a honeypot. Once holders' token accounts are frozen or transfers are blocked, there is normally nothing a buyer can do.
- Is a honeypot the same as a rug pull?
- A honeypot is one kind of rug pull. Most rugs let you sell but crash the price by dumping supply; a honeypot stops you from selling at all through the token's settings, so the creator is the only one who can cash out.