Memecoin glossary
Rug pull: what it is and how to spot one
A rug pull is when the people behind a coin take the money out and leave holders with tokens that cannot be sold. On Solana memecoins it usually happens as a liquidity pull, a dev dump, or a honeypot.
Updated Oct 30, 2026
What is a rug pull?
The name comes from pulling a rug out from under someone. One moment the coin has a price and a chart. The next moment the money is gone and the chart drops to zero.
Memecoins are easy to launch and nobody checks who is behind them. That makes rugs the most common way new traders lose SOL. Most launches are not rugs, but enough are that you should assume the risk is real on every new coin.
What are the three common shapes?
A rug is any setup where the creators take the money and leave. It shows up in three main forms.
- Liquidity pull: the creator removes the SOL from the trading pool. Your tokens have nothing to sell into, so they are worth nothing.
- Dev dump: the creator kept a large share of the supply and sells it into the first wave of buyers. The price collapses in seconds.
- Honeypot: the coin lets you buy but blocks selling, or taxes sells so heavily that you get nothing back. Your position looks green and you cannot leave.
How do you spot one before it happens?
No single sign proves a rug. Three signs together usually do. Look for a brand-new pair, tiny liquidity, one wallet holding most of the supply, and socials that appeared an hour ago.
Check the dev wallet too. A creator holding more than 10 to 15% of supply can dump at any time. A dev wallet that has launched and abandoned coins before is a strong warning.
On coins that have moved to a real pool, check whether the liquidity is locked or burned. If the creator can still remove it, they can still pull it.
How MemeSim simulates it
MemeSim trades with fake SOL against real live prices, so you can get rugged for free. When a coin you hold dies, the fill engine treats the pool as empty and your sell returns close to zero SOL. A buy on a dead pair is cancelled with a message that the pair has no liquidity left.
The coin page then shows a red explainer with what happened and what the signs were. That is the whole point: learn the pattern with practice money, not rent money.
Questions
- Can you get your money back after a rug pull?
- Almost never. The SOL has left the pool and the wallets that took it are anonymous. Prevention is the only real defense.
- Is every coin that drops 90% a rug?
- No. Memecoins fall hard on their own all the time. A rug is specifically when the creators remove the money or block selling.
- Does MemeSim protect me from rugs?
- It simulates them. You lose fake SOL and see an explainer, so you learn the warning signs before trading anything real.