25 answers to the most common questions about honeypots, rug pulls, and token safety.
A honeypot token is a fraudulent crypto token that lets you buy freely but blocks or heavily taxes sell transactions, trapping your funds in the contract permanently.
Rarely, but some advanced honeypots use time-delayed activation or whitelist-based logic that only triggers after launch. This is why DexScanr combines simulation with contract code analysis and deployer history checks rather than relying on simulation alone.
Yes. Some contracts restrict selling only through specific router addresses. A token may allow sells on Uniswap V2 but block them on V3 or on a different DEX entirely. Always scan using the chain and DEX where you plan to trade.
A 99% sell tax means that if you try to sell tokens worth 1 ETH, you receive only 0.01 ETH back. The remaining 99% is taken by the contract. This is functionally identical to a honeypot — your funds are trapped.
Yes. Most honeypots copy the source code of legitimate tokens and add only a few lines of malicious logic. They often have real liquidity, real trading volume, and real price movement — making them indistinguishable without a simulation or contract audit.
A honeypot traps you inside — you can buy but never sell. A rug pull lets you sell but the developer removes liquidity first, crashing the price to zero before you can exit. Both result in total loss but through different mechanisms.
Yes. Liquidity lock only prevents the developer from removing the trading pool. They can still dump their own token holdings, raise the sell tax to 99%, or blacklist all holders. A lock is one safety signal, not a guarantee.
Yes. If the developer holds a large percentage of the token supply, they can still dump their holdings and crash the price even after renouncing ownership. Renouncement only removes the ability to modify the contract — it does not lock the team’s tokens.
A soft rug pull is a slow exit where the developer gradually sells their token holdings over days or weeks while continuing to promote the project. The price declines slowly rather than crashing instantly, making it harder to detect until significant losses have occurred.
A hard rug pull can happen in a single transaction taking under 15 seconds. The developer calls the liquidity removal function, the pool is drained, and the token becomes worthless before most holders can react.
A minimum of 6 months is the generally accepted standard. Locks under 30 days offer almost no real protection. The strongest signal is permanently burned LP tokens, which means liquidity can never be removed by anyone.
Burning LP tokens means sending them to a dead address (0x000...dead), permanently removing the ability to withdraw liquidity. This is the strongest possible liquidity lock signal and is far more trustworthy than a time-locked locker.
Ownership renouncement means the developer has transferred the contract owner role to the zero address, permanently removing the ability to call owner-only functions such as changing taxes, minting tokens, or blacklisting wallets.
Not always. Some legitimate projects keep liquidity unlocked for operational reasons. However, unlocked liquidity is a significant risk factor that should make you much more cautious, especially combined with other red flags like an anonymous team or unverified contract.
Generally, taxes below 5% are considered acceptable. Taxes between 5% and 10% are a yellow flag. Taxes above 10% are a red flag. Any token with a sell tax above 25% should be treated as a potential honeypot regardless of other signals.
Yes, if ownership has not been renounced and the contract includes a tax-setting function. This is a common scam pattern — launch with 0% tax to attract buyers, then silently raise the sell tax to 90% before pulling liquidity.
A blacklist is a mapping inside the contract that associates wallet addresses with a blocked status. Blacklisted wallets cannot transfer or sell their tokens. The contract owner can add any wallet to the blacklist at any time if the function exists and ownership is not renounced.
Yes. Blacklist checks are often embedded inside internal transfer functions with generic names, making them hard to spot without a thorough contract audit. DexScanr scans for the presence of blacklist and blocklist functions automatically.
Free users get 3 token scans per day across all supported chains. The limit resets at midnight UTC. Pro users get unlimited scans with no daily cap.
DexScanr supports Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, and Avalanche. Select your chain from the dropdown before scanning.
No. DexScanr never asks for wallet access, private keys, or any on-chain permissions. You only need to paste a token contract address. Your funds are never at risk from using the scanner.
DexScanr simulates actual buy and sell transactions against the token contract using real on-chain conditions. This catches the vast majority of honeypot patterns. No scanner can guarantee 100% detection of all possible contract exploits, which is why DexScanr also checks liquidity, ownership, taxes, and deployer history as additional signals.
DexScanr calculates a safety score from 0 to 100 based on weighted analysis of honeypot simulation result, liquidity lock status, ownership renouncement, buy and sell tax rates, blacklist presence, and deployer wallet history. Higher scores indicate lower risk.
Do not buy or invest in the token. A failed scan means one or more critical risk factors were detected. Share the scan result with others in the community to warn them. If you already hold the token, understand that selling may be restricted or impossible depending on the type of trap detected.
No. DexScanr is a technical analysis tool, not a financial advisor. A passing scan means the token does not exhibit common scam patterns at the time of the scan — it is not a guarantee of safety or future price performance. Always do your own research before investing.