Answer
How do I avoid wallet drainers?
Assume any request for your seed phrase is theft — no launchpad, wallet, support desk or airdrop needs it — and treat a token site that connects and then asks you to approve as the usual first step of a drain.
The three things a drainer needs
A drainer does not break cryptography. It gets you to hand over the key or the permission. That happens in three ways: you type your seed phrase into a page that looks like a wallet restore screen, you sign a transaction granting an unlimited token delegation, or you sign a transfer you did not read because the prompt was dressed up as a mint or an airdrop claim. Every one of those is a decision you made, which is why the defence is reading rather than antivirus.
- Seed phrase requests: never legitimate, in any context, from anyone, including support.
- Blind signing: if the prompt does not show what leaves your wallet, close it.
- Lookalike domains: one swapped letter is enough; type the address yourself.
- Urgency: real launches do not expire in ninety seconds, and helpful DMs are the attack.
What a normal launch looks like
A coin launch is one transaction. It creates the mint and the bonding curve accounts and costs 0.01495 SOL, of which 0.0144428 SOL is refundable account deposits and 0.00051 SOL is network fee. You approve it in your own wallet and that is the end of it. No step in that flow asks you to restore a wallet, import a private key, or approve a token you have never heard of.
Keep the launching wallet separate from the wallet that holds the rest of your SOL. Then a mistake costs the launch wallet rather than everything, and you can abandon a compromised address without moving your whole balance in a hurry.
- Bookmark the launchpad and the explorer instead of searching for them.
- Connect, read the prompt, then approve — never approve to see what happens.
- Revoke old token approvals periodically from a block explorer.
If something goes wrong
Signatures cannot be undone. What you can do is move fast: transfer what is left out of the compromised wallet, revoke the approvals that remain, and stop using the address. On Telegram, a reported account is limited to messaging people who have saved its number, so an impostor loses most of its reach once reported; @SpamBot handles appeals on your own account and @NoToScam handles impersonation.
- Screenshot the malicious transaction before you abandon the wallet.
- Report the domain to the wallet vendor as well as the host.
- Expect a second wave of DMs offering to recover your funds — that is the same scam again.
Related questions
Is it safe to connect my wallet to a launch site?
Connecting only reveals your public address. The risk is the transaction you sign afterwards, so read every prompt before approving it.
Can a drainer empty a hardware wallet?
Not by itself. A hardware wallet shows you what you are approving, so the remaining risk is that you approve something malicious or type the recovery phrase into a computer.
Do drainer links really appear in Telegram groups?
Constantly, usually from accounts posing as admins or support. Treat any link you did not ask for as hostile, including ones that look like the channel's own.
Where to go next
- Which wallet should I use to launch a coin?
- Can I launch a coin from an exchange wallet?
- The full launch guide: costs, socials, 21-day runway
- Every question we have answered
If the brand and the page are what is stopping you
Mint a Brand draws the icon, banner and stickers, builds the token site on its own subdomain and prepares the launch for your wallet to sign, for $30. Your wallet pays the network fee and is the creator of record.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-31 · nothing here is financial advice, and most meme coins go to zero.