Answer
How do I check whether a token is a scam?
Check five things — whether authorities are revoked, how concentrated the holders are, who bought first, where the liquidity is, and whether the social accounts resolve to a real person — and treat all five as filters rather than a guarantee.
The five checks
Chainalysis describes the classic pattern: a token is promoted, early wallets accumulate, the price is pumped, and the operators sell into the buyers they attracted. Every check below is aimed at one part of that sequence.
On pump.fun specifically, authorities are null at creation, so that box is ticked before you look — which means the remaining risk sits in holders, timing and liquidity, not in supply inflation.
- Authorities: mint and freeze null, or revoked and verifiable in an explorer
- Holders: a handful of wallets holding most of the supply can exit in one transaction
- First transactions: were the earliest buys bundled into a few wallets minutes before promotion?
- Liquidity: on pump.fun the curve holds it; once graduated, the LP is burned and cannot be pulled
- Socials: an account with history, replies and a real artefact behind it, not one made last week
Reading the signals in context
The base rates are against you before any of this. 0.198% of tokens graduated, 80.37% were dead within a day, and 4.55% were still alive at 90 days. Advertised Telegram calls graded across 2,635 launches saw 9% up after 24 hours, a median of 0.075x, and 57% losing more than 90%.
A token can pass every check and still go to zero, because passing them only means the obvious traps are absent. There is no analysis that converts a memecoin into a safe holding; the honest framing is that most of them lose most of their value.
- Median 7-day return on advertised calls: 0.059x
- 86% of KOL-promoted tokens fell 90% within three months
- 68.67% of tokens' last trade happens on creation day
What the socials tell you
An account that announces a coin with no posting history is the cheapest signal available. Look for a body of work: posts on the topic over weeks, replies to other people, something built. Coins advertising a Telegram channel graduated at 1.485% against 0.166% — a channel amplifies an audience, it does not substitute for one.
If someone is being paid to promote the token, they should say so as #ad. In the US, buying fake indicators of influence such as followers for a commercial purpose is unlawful under 16 CFR 465.8.
- Check the account's age and its replies, not its follower count
- Look for a real artefact — a page, a tool, a document
- Treat undisclosed promotion as a signal in itself
Related questions
Are revoked authorities enough to make a token safe?
No. They remove supply and freeze risk, but holders, timing and liquidity still decide what happens to the price, and most tokens go to zero.
What is the single strongest warning sign?
Concentrated early holdings bought just before a promotion push — that is the structure of the pump-and-dump pattern Chainalysis describes.
Can I check this myself without special tools?
Yes. A block explorer shows authorities, holders and the first transactions on the mint; the coin page and DEX Screener give you liquidity and price history.
Where to go next
- What is a sniper bot and should I worry?
- Should I revoke authorities before or after launch?
- 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
- Chainalysis — crypto crime report, pump-and-dump
- CoinGecko research on pump.fun token lifespan
- 16 CFR Part 465 — fake indicators of influence
Checked 2026-10-31 · nothing here is financial advice, and most meme coins go to zero.