How long should liquidity be locked?

At minimum, liquidity should be locked for 30–90 days for new tokens. Established projects often lock for 6–12 months or more. A lock of less than 7 days is a red flag — the team can rug shortly after launch.

What is the difference between locked and burned liquidity?

Locked liquidity is time-locked via a service like PinkLock or Unicrypt — it will be returned to the team after the lock expires. Burned liquidity sends the LP tokens to a dead address, making it permanently impossible to withdraw. Burned is stronger but less flexible for legitimate projects.

Can locked liquidity still be rug-pulled?

Yes, in two ways: (1) the team can dump a large pre-mined allocation even if liquidity is locked, and (2) once the lock expires, the team can withdraw immediately. Always check the lock expiry date and the team's token allocation separately.

Liquidity Lock — What It Is & Why It Matters

What Is a Liquidity Lock?

A liquidity lock is a smart contract mechanism that time-locks the liquidity pool (LP) tokens that back a DEX trading pair. While the lock is active, the team cannot withdraw the underlying assets (ETH, SOL, USDC) from the pool. This is one of the most important safety mechanisms in crypto — without it, the team can execute a rug pull at any moment.

How Liquidity Locks Work

When a token launches on a DEX like Uniswap, Raydium, or PancakeSwap, the team deposits an initial pair (e.g., TOKEN + ETH) into a liquidity pool. In return, they receive LP tokens that represent their share of the pool. Whoever holds the LP tokens can withdraw the pool's assets.

A liquidity lock sends these LP tokens to a smart contract that releases them only after a specified time. Popular locking services include:

PinkLock (PinkSale) — widely used on BSC and Ethereum
Unicrypt — one of the oldest locking services
Team Finance — multi-chain locking
Mudra — BSC-focused

Locked vs. Burned Liquidity

Locked liquidity is time-locked — the LP tokens are returned to the team when the lock expires. This is the most common approach because it gives legitimate projects flexibility to manage their liquidity after launch.

Burned liquidity sends the LP tokens to a dead address (e.g.,0x000...dEaD), making it permanently impossible to withdraw. This is stronger but means the team can never adjust the pool, which can be a problem for legitimate long-term projects.

How to Verify a Liquidity Lock

Before buying a token, check:

Is the liquidity locked at all? If not, the team can rug at any time.
What percentage is locked? Ideally 100% of the LP tokens. Some teams lock only 50% and rug the rest.
How long is the lock? Less than 7 days is a red flag. Look for at least 30–90 days.
When does the lock expire? A lock expiring tomorrow is worthless. Check the unlock date.
Is the lock verifiable? The locking service should provide a public link to the lock contract.

GuavaIntel's scanner automatically checks liquidity lock status via GoPlus and RugCheck, including the lock percentage and unlock date.

Liquidity Lock