LP lock and liquidity burn

What LP tokens are, what locking or burning them does, why unlocked liquidity lets a creator rug a pool, and how to check how much of a token's LP is locked or burned on Solana and Base.

When someone creates a trading pool for a token, they deposit the token plus SOL, ETH or USDC. In return they get LP tokens, a receipt for their share of the pool. Whoever holds the LP tokens can withdraw that liquidity at any time.

Why it matters

A classic rug: the creator seeds a pool, buyers push the price up, then the creator redeems the LP tokens and walks away with the SOL or ETH side of the pool. The token is left with almost no liquidity and you cannot sell for anything meaningful.

Locked vs burned

• Burned: the LP tokens were sent to a burn address. Nobody can withdraw that liquidity, ever.
• Locked: the LP tokens sit in a time-lock contract until a date. Safe until the unlock, so check when that is.
• Neither: a wallet holds them and can pull the liquidity whenever it wants.

The token checker flags a pool when less than half of its LP is locked or burned and liquidity is under $250,000. Big, established pools are often unlocked for normal market making, so the check matters most on small, new tokens.

Caveats

Concentrated-liquidity pools (Uniswap V3 style, Orca Whirlpools, Meteora DLMM and similar) use positions rather than fungible LP tokens, so lock data is often missing for them. A token can also have several pools; the checker looks at all-DEX liquidity and the main pools. Informational only, not investment advice.

Next: holder concentration, snipers and bundles, or check a token now.

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