A honeypot is a token you can buy but cannot sell. The chart looks healthy because every buy pushes the price up and no one can sell into it; by the time you notice, the creator has taken the liquidity out of the pool. It is one of the oldest scams in crypto and still one of the most common, especially among new tokens on Base, BNB Chain and Solana.
How a token blocks your sale
- A blacklist: the contract can mark wallets that may no longer transfer. Buyers are added right after they buy.
- A sell fee that can be changed: it starts low, then is raised to 50% or 99%, so a sale returns almost nothing.
- A trading switch: trading is turned off again after the launch, for everyone but the creator.
- A transfer limit: the largest allowed sale is set so low that selling is impossible in practice.
- Frozen accounts on Solana: a token with a freeze authority can freeze your token account so nothing can move.
- Replaceable code: an upgradeable contract can look clean today and get any of the tricks above tomorrow.
Signs you can check yourself
- Look for sells. On the token's page in a block explorer or a chart site, check that ordinary wallets have sold recently, not only bought. Only buys is the clearest warning there is.
- Check who controls the contract. An owner that renounced (ownership moved to a dead address) can no longer use owner functions; an active owner can.
- Check the liquidity. Liquidity that is locked or burned cannot be pulled at once; liquidity in the creator's wallet can.
- Check the holders. If a few wallets hold most of the supply, they decide the price.
- Be wary of pressure. Countdown launches, promised returns and "last chance" messages are there to stop you from checking.
What Soheil Guard does for you
When you pick a route on Soheil, Soheil Guard checks the token you would receive before you sign: whether it can be sold back and for how much, what its creator can still do with it, and who holds it. It shows one label (looks fine, caution, risky) and a plain line per finding. It is free and never blocks the trade. It is a check, not a guarantee: no check catches everything, so the steps above are still worth a minute.
If you are already stuck
Do not send more money to "unlock" or "recover" the tokens, and do not approve anything on a site that offers to: recovery offers aimed at honeypot victims are a second scam. Revoke the approvals you gave to the token's contract, keep the transaction hashes, and report the token to the chart and explorer sites so others are warned.
Do it
More guides
- How to bridge to Hyperliquid (HyperEVM) from any chain
- How to buy TAO (Bittensor) with any token
- Health factor explained: how to borrow without being liquidated
- What a swap or bridge really costs: every fee, explained
Information, not financial advice. Soheil.fi is non-custodial; every transaction is signed in your own wallet.