Future Protections Against Rug Pulls in Cryptocurrency

Between January and November 2024, over $9.3 billion was stolen from crypto investors in the U.S. alone - and rug pulls accounted for the majority of those losses. These aren’t just random scams. They’re organized, automated, and getting smarter. Developers launch tokens with flashy websites, celebrity endorsements, and promises of 100x returns. Then, one day, the liquidity vanishes. The team disappears. The token drops to zero. And you’re left holding nothing. The good news? The tools to stop this are already here - and they’re getting better every month.

How Rug Pulls Work Today

A rug pull isn’t just one thing. It’s a set of tactics. The most common is the liquidity sweep. Scammers create a token paired with SOL or ETH, lock in a small amount of liquidity, and wait. When real investors start buying, the price rises. Then, in a single transaction, the dev wallet pulls out 90% of the liquidity. No warning. No notice. The token crashes instantly because there’s no one left to buy it. This exact pattern was observed on Solana’s Raydium V4 platform, where over 80% of new memecoins followed this script.

Then there are soft rug pulls. These are quieter. The team keeps posting updates. They say they’re "building." They even release minor features. But behind the scenes, they’re slowly selling their tokens, draining the treasury, and cutting support. It takes weeks or months, but the result is the same: your investment becomes worthless.

Hard rug pulls are fast. Soft ones are crueler. Both rely on one thing: you trusting what you can’t see.

The Rise of RPHunter: Code + Behavior Detection

Traditional scanners look for known bad code patterns - like functions that let the owner withdraw all funds. But scammers changed their code to avoid those flags. Now, they hide malicious logic inside complex, legitimate-looking contracts. That’s where RPHunter comes in. Launched in early 2025, it’s the first system that doesn’t just check code - it watches how people interact with it.

RPHunter builds two graphs: one of the smart contract’s logic (the semantic risk code graph), and another of token transactions (the token flow behavior graph). It then uses machine learning to find connections between them. For example: a contract might look clean, but if 90% of trades happen in the first hour, and the dev wallet immediately sends half the liquidity to a new address, RPHunter flags it - even if the code has no obvious backdoors.

Its results are staggering: 95.3% precision, 93.8% recall. In real-world use, it caught 4,801 rug pull tokens with only 9% false positives. That’s not just detection - that’s prevention at scale.

Token Sniffer and GoPlus: Automated Safety Scores

You don’t need to be a coder to protect yourself. Platforms like Token Sniffer give every token a safety score from 0 to 100. It checks: Is liquidity locked? Are there more than 500 holders? Is the contract renounced? Is there a known dev wallet with a history of scams? It even scans for honeypots - contracts that look tradable but trap your funds.

A score above 80? Probably safe. Below 50? Run. Token Sniffer works across Ethereum, BSC, Solana, and Polygon. And it updates in real time. If someone pulls liquidity 10 minutes after launch, your dashboard shows it immediately.

GoPlus Security does something similar but focuses on dApps and wallet interactions. It spots if a token’s contract allows unauthorized transfers, if the dev wallet can mint new tokens, or if there’s a hidden pause function. These aren’t just features - they’re red flags.

Token Metrics: The Investor Grade

Security isn’t enough. A token can be technically safe but still be a scam. That’s why Token Metrics created the Investor Grade. It doesn’t just look at code. It asks: Who’s behind this? Are they anonymous? Do they have a track record? Is the team verified on Twitter or LinkedIn? Is there real community engagement - or just bots? Is the token’s supply concentrated in 5 wallets?

It also tracks liquidity stability. If a token’s liquidity drops by 30% in a week, even if the contract is clean, the Investor Grade drops. This system caught dozens of soft rug pulls before they became full-blown disasters. It’s not about avoiding risk - it’s about understanding it.

Behavioral Analytics: Tracking Scammer Wallets

The next layer is behavioral detection. Companies like Elliptic track wallets across chains. They don’t just look at one transaction. They look at patterns: Does this wallet always send funds to exchanges right after a token launches? Does it interact with 20+ new tokens in a week? Does it use mixers or bridges to obscure its trail?

These wallets leave fingerprints. Even if a scammer creates a new address, their behavior stays the same. Elliptic’s system flags these wallets automatically. Exchanges and DeFi platforms use these flags to block deposits or freeze accounts before the scam even starts. This shifts protection from reactive to predictive.

What You Can Do Right Now

Technology helps - but it doesn’t replace you. Here’s what you need to do:

• Never invest based on a Telegram group hype or a YouTube influencer’s "100x gem." If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
• Always check the token’s liquidity. If it’s not locked for at least 6 months, walk away.
• Use Token Sniffer or GoPlus before buying. A 10-second check can save you $10,000.
• Look at the holder distribution. If the top 10 wallets hold more than 40% of the supply, it’s a red flag.
• Follow the dev team. Do they respond to questions? Do they have real profiles? Or are they using stock photos and fake names?
• Invest only what you can afford to lose. Crypto is risky. Rug pulls are designed to exploit FOMO. Don’t let emotion drive your decisions.

The Bigger Picture: Regulation and Community

Governments are starting to act. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation now runs a public Crypto Scam Tracker. It lists known rug pull projects, fake teams, and malicious contracts. You can search by token name or wallet address. It’s not perfect - scammers operate globally - but it’s a start.

Community reporting is growing too. Platforms like DeFiLlama and Dune Analytics let users flag suspicious tokens. When 50+ users report the same project, algorithms prioritize it for deeper analysis. Reputation systems are being tested: users who consistently flag real scams get higher trust scores. Their reports carry more weight.

The future isn’t one tool. It’s a network. RPHunter catches the code. Token Sniffer scores the safety. Token Metrics evaluates the team. Elliptic tracks the wallets. Regulators publish known scams. You, the investor, stay skeptical. Together, they form a shield.

What’s Next

The next leap will be adaptive AI. Today’s tools rely on past data. Tomorrow’s will learn in real time. Imagine a system that watches 10,000 new tokens daily, learns what normal looks like, and instantly spots the 10 that behave like fraudsters - even if they’ve never been seen before. That’s coming. And it will make rug pulls harder to pull off.

But the biggest barrier isn’t technology. It’s belief. Too many people still think, "This time it’s different." It’s not. The pattern never changes. The tools are here. The knowledge is free. The only thing left is your discipline.