CashboardGlossary · Memecoins
What is a honeypot token?
A honeypot token lets you buy but not sell: its contract blocks sales, or taxes them close to 100 percent, for everyone except the wallets it exempts.
How does a honeypot token work?
The chart looks great because nobody can sell. Buyers push the price up, each sell fails or loses nearly everything to a hidden tax, and the creator's exempt wallets sell into that buying and leave. The trap sits in the contract: a blacklist that blocks sellers, a whitelist that lets only insiders out, a sell tax the owner can raise at will, or a switch that pauses transfers.
It is mostly an EVM problem, because an ERC-20 contract runs its own code on every transfer. A standard Solana token has no code of its own. It is a set of data accounts run by one shared Token Program, so the traps move elsewhere: a live freeze authority can lock any holder's token account, and a live mint authority can print supply to dump. Token-2022 tokens can also carry extensions such as transfer hooks and transfer fees, which bring back some of the EVM risk.
Checkers look for honeypots by simulating a buy and a sell against the live pool, or by reading the contract, and a clean result is not a guarantee. A proxy contract can be upgraded after the scan, and an owner can raise a tax later. GeckoTerminal's check returns true, false or unknown, and unknown just means it has no result.
Imagine a new Base token up 400 percent in its first hour, with 3,000 buys and no sells in its trade history. That is not a strong market. A buy-only tape on an active token is the classic look of a honeypot, and the first person who tries to sell finds out the hard way.
Also called: honeypot, honeypot scam, honeypot coin.
Where does a honeypot token show up in Cashboard?
Token terminal shows GeckoTerminal's honeypot check for tokens on Solana, Base, Ethereum, HyperEVM and Robinhood Chain: a red Honeypot tag when GeckoTerminal flags one, a green No honeypot when its check passed and a grey Honeypot n/a when it has no answer. Solana tokens also get mint and freeze authority tags. The Trades tab lists up to 50 of the top pool's latest swaps with their side, so a tape with no sells stands out. Cashboard runs no check of its own and calls no token safe.
Frequently asked questions
How can you tell if a token is a honeypot?
Look for sells first. An active token whose recent trades are all buys is the loudest warning. Then check a honeypot scanner's result and read the contract for blacklists, owner-controlled sell taxes and pause switches. A clean result lowers the odds and proves nothing.
Can a Solana token be a honeypot?
Not in the EVM sense. A standard SPL token cannot carry its own sell logic, because every one runs on the same shared Token Program. It can still trap holders through a live freeze authority, and Token-2022 tokens can add transfer hooks or fees. Check the freeze and mint authority before you buy.
Related terms
Last reviewed . Market data in Cashboard comes from the providers named on each widget and may be delayed. Nothing here is financial advice.