What a honeypot looks like from the outside
From the outside, a honeypot looks like a coin that is doing well. The price climbs, there are lots of buys, the holder count grows. What you don't see at first glance is that almost nobody except the creator manages to sell. Every buyer adds to the pool, and the creator — or a handful of wallets the creator allows — takes it out.
Not every honeypot blocks sells completely. Some let you sell, but take most of the proceeds as a "tax". Some let you sell for the first hour, then switch the door shut. The question to answer is always the same: if I buy this now, can I sell it again, and what will I get back?
How honeypots work on EVM chains
On Ethereum-style chains — including newer ones like Robinhood Chain and Arc — a token is a smart contract, and its creator writes the rules for every transfer. That leaves a lot of room for tricks:
- A sell block in the transfer code. Transfers to the pool (that is, sells) fail for everyone except allowed addresses.
- A blacklist. The owner can add any wallet to a list that can't transfer — often right after it buys.
- An adjustable tax. The sell tax starts low and the owner raises it to 90% or more once buyers are in.
- A trading switch or a maximum sell. Sells can be paused, or capped at an amount so small it is useless.
- A hidden owner. The contract says ownership is renounced, but another address still holds the same powers under a different name.
- An owner who can change balances. A function that lets a privileged address set or reduce anyone's balance directly.
- An upgradeable proxy. The code you read today can be replaced with different code tomorrow.
How honeypots work on Solana
Solana's classic token program has no custom transfer code — every token follows the same rules — so the EVM-style tricks above aren't available. Solana honeypots use the powers the token standard does offer:
- Freeze authority. If it hasn't been revoked, the holder can freeze any token account. A frozen account can't sell.
- Transfer hook (Token-2022). A program that runs on every transfer and can make it fail — a sell block, in other words.
- Permanent delegate (Token-2022). An address that can move or burn tokens out of any holder's wallet. Buyers have watched their tokens disappear moments after a swap this way.
- Transfer fee (Token-2022). A cut of every transfer, which can be set high enough to make selling worthless.
The good news is that all of these are visible on-chain before you buy. A Solana token with its freeze authority revoked and no transfer hook or permanent delegate can't trap you through the token itself. It can still lose all its value through liquidity and holders — see the 12-point rug check for those.
Four ways to test before you buy
01Read the powers
Look at what the contract or mint allows, rather than what it has done so far. On Solana: freeze authority and Token-2022 extensions. On EVM chains: owner functions, blacklist, tax setters, a hidden owner, balance-changing functions, a proxy. This is the most robust check because it covers what the creator could do later, not just today.
Weak spot: on EVM chains, dangerous logic can be obfuscated, and an unverified contract can't be read at all. Treat unverified code as a warning in itself.
02Simulate a round trip
A simulation runs a buy and a sell against the chain's current state without sending anything. If the sell fails, or comes back far smaller than the buy minus normal fees, the gap is the tax — or the trap. Because nothing is signed or sent, it costs nothing.
Weak spot: the simulation uses a fresh test address. A contract that only blocks wallets it has blacklisted, or only blocks after a delay, can pass.
03A tiny real test trade
Buy a very small amount and sell it straight back, from the wallet you will actually trade with. If the sell goes through at a reasonable price, the token is sellable for you, right now.
Weak spot: it costs fees on both legs, a thin pool can make even a tiny trade look expensive, and a creator can still flip the switch after your test.
04Read the sell history
Look at the token's recent trades. Do you see successful sells from many different wallets — not just the creator and a few addresses linked to it? Lots of buys and almost no sells is one of the clearest honeypot patterns there is.
Weak spot: a brand-new token has little history, and the creator can make a few sells from their own wallets to fake it.
| Method | Costs money? | Catches later changes? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read the powers | No | Yes — it shows what can change | Every token, first |
| Simulate a round trip | No | No | EVM tokens with sell logic or taxes |
| Tiny real test trade | Fees | No | Confirming sellability from your own wallet |
| Read the sell history | No | No | Tokens with some trading behind them |
No single method is enough. A token that passes the first two — no dangerous powers, and a clean simulated round trip with a normal tax — is in a much better place than one that only passed a test trade.
What a passed test can't promise
- It is a snapshot. If the owner can still change the tax, pause trading or blacklist wallets, they can do it after your test.
- It is for one wallet, at one size. Some traps only trigger for larger sells or for specific addresses.
- Sellable is not the same as safe. A token you can sell can still be dumped to nothing by its holders, or have its liquidity pulled if the LP isn't burned or locked.
If you're already stuck
Stop adding money. Nobody can reliably unlock a honeypot for you, and "recovery" offers in DMs or replies are a second scam — the same goes for anyone asking for your seed phrase or private key. On EVM chains, revoke the approvals you gave the token so it can't touch anything else in your wallet. Then write down what you missed, so the next check catches it.
How Uurly tests sellability. On Robinhood Chain and Arc, Uurly's server runs a sell test on every new coin: a buy, a transfer and a sell simulated together, with no funds involved, measuring the buy and sell tax and what a round trip would lose. It also checks for a hidden owner and for an owner who can change balances. On Solana, a freeze authority or a dangerous Token-2022 extension blocks a buy outright. When you buy by hand with Manual Buy, the contract checks run first and then a tiny test buy and sell. If any of it fails, the coin is turned down and you see why.
A sell test on every new coin, before any buy
On Robinhood Chain and Arc, Uurly simulates a buy, a transfer and a sell for every new coin — no funds involved — and measures the taxes. On Solana it blocks coins with a freeze authority or a dangerous Token-2022 extension. A coin that fails is turned down, with the reason on screen. Try it on demo coins.
Trial: demo coins with real checks and real price paths, every trade simulated — no wallet, no funds. Live trading needs a Pro subscription.
FAQ
What is a honeypot token?
A honeypot is a token that can be bought but can't be sold — or can only be sold at a loss so large that selling is pointless, for example because of a 90% or higher sell tax. The creator, and sometimes a short list of wallets, can still sell, so they cash out from everyone who bought.
Are there honeypots on Solana?
Yes, but they work differently than on EVM chains. Classic Solana tokens can't contain custom transfer code, so the usual tools are a freeze authority that freezes buyers' accounts, or Token-2022 extensions such as a transfer hook that rejects transfers or a permanent delegate that can take tokens out of wallets. Checking those authorities and extensions catches most Solana honeypots.
Is a honeypot checker 100% reliable?
No. A passed test means a sell worked at that moment, for a test wallet, at that size. An owner can turn on a sell block or raise the tax later, blacklist specific wallets, or let liquidity disappear. Re-check close to buying, and prefer tokens where the owner has no such powers at all.
What does a high sell tax mean?
Some tokens take a percentage of every sell. A few percent is common on EVM memecoins. A sell tax far above the buy tax, or a tax the owner can change at will, is a warning: the token can become a honeypot without changing anything else.
I bought a honeypot. Can I get my money back?
Usually not. Don't pay anyone who offers to unlock or recover your tokens — those offers are a second scam, and nobody legitimate will DM you first. On EVM chains, revoke any token approvals you gave the contract, and move remaining funds to a wallet that never interacted with it.
Keep reading
Not financial advice. Memecoins are extremely risky and most go to zero; only trade money you can afford to lose. Checks lower the odds of a bad coin — they don't remove them. Read the Risk Disclaimer.
