How to Reduce Scam Risks in Your Solana Token Launch
Trust is the most valuable asset for any new crypto token. This guide outlines specific, actionable techniques creators can use to prevent scams and build lasting credibility with their community. We focus on structural features and launch practices that signal legitimacy from day one.
Try It NowKey Benefits
The Problem
Traditional solutions are complex, time-consuming, and often require technical expertise.
The Solution
Spawned provides an AI-powered platform that makes building fast, simple, and accessible to everyone.
The Best Defense: Choosing a Launchpad with Built-In Scam Prevention
Your launchpad choice is your first and most important line of defense.
The most effective scam prevention happens at the platform level. While any creator can make promises, a launchpad's enforced rules and economic structures create real barriers to fraudulent activity. For Solana creators, platforms that mandate sustainable creator revenue and holder rewards from the start filter out bad actors. A platform charging a 0.1 SOL launch fee, for instance, immediately weeds out the mass of spam tokens created for near-zero cost. The key is selecting a launchpad that doesn't just host your token, but actively designs its ecosystem to promote long-term projects over short-term scams. Platforms that graduate tokens to Solana's Token-2022 program with a locked 1% perpetual fee provide a permanent, transparent record of the project's economic intent.
Structural Prevention vs. Promotional Hype
Build trust with code and economics, not just words.
Many new creators focus on promotional tactics to prove legitimacy, but structural features embedded in the token's launch are far more convincing to savvy investors.
Structural Prevention (High Impact):
- Enforced Revenue Model: A launchpad that automatically assigns a 0.30% creator fee per trade establishes a sustainable income stream. This directly reduces the incentive for a 'rug pull,' where creators drain liquidity and disappear. Compare this to platforms with 0% fees, which can encourage exit scams.
- Holder Rewards: Allocating 0.30% of every trade directly to token holders creates a community with skin in the game. This shared interest acts as a powerful check against malicious actions by the creator.
- Post-Graduation Fees: A clear, perpetual 1% fee structure after moving to Token-2022 provides long-term transparency. Investors can see the project's intended monetization path from the beginning.
Promotional Hype (Low Impact):
- Vague Roadmaps: Promises of future developments without a clear funding mechanism.
- Anonymous 'Doxxing': Sharing social profiles that can be easily faked.
- Large Marketing Budgets: Spending on ads can sometimes be a tactic to pump the token before a scam.
The most trusted tokens use structural features as their foundation, then add promotional elements for growth.
7 Concrete Techniques to Reduce Scam Perception
Actionable steps for creators launching today.
Here are seven specific actions you can take during your launch process to prevent being labeled a scam.
- Mandate a Creator Fee from Launch: Use a launchpad that enforces a small, sustainable fee like 0.30%. This signals you're building a business, not executing a one-time pump. It aligns your success with the token's long-term health.
- Distribute Holder Rewards Automatically: Program a 0.30% reward from every trade to be distributed to holders. This builds a loyal base that will monitor the project's health and advocate for it.
- Launch with a Professional AI Website: Immediately provide a clear information hub. Using the included AI builder on Spawned saves $29-99/month and gives you a live site with tokenomics, goals, and contact info—reducing the 'anonymous dev' red flag.
- Use the Token-2022 Standard Post-Launch: Plan your graduation to Solana's Token-2022 program. Its enforced 1% perpetual fee is a public, unchangeable commitment to a legitimate project model.
- Be Transparent About the 0.1 SOL Cost: Frame the launch fee not as a cost, but as a filter. It shows you're serious enough to invest in a proper launch, separating you from flood of free, scammy tokens.
- Link to Clear Use Cases: Connect your token to a real utility. For example, if it's a gaming token, detail its function in your game's economy. See how to create a gaming token on Solana for a framework.
- Plan for Multi-Chain Clarity (Optional): If you plan to expand, have a clear rationale. Don't just launch on multiple chains to appear bigger. Understand the differences in creating tokens on Ethereum or Base versus Solana before you decide.
How Sustainable Economics Prevent Exit Scams
Fix the incentive, and you fix the behavior.
The root cause of most 'rug pulls' is a misalignment of incentives. The creator has no ongoing reason to maintain the project after the initial token sale. Their only way to profit is to drain the liquidity pool and run. This technique directly reverses that incentive structure.
By building a project on a model that provides the creator with 0.30% of every trade, you create a recurring revenue stream. The longer the project lasts and the more trading volume it generates, the more the creator earns. Suddenly, the creator's goal shifts from a one-time theft to nurturing a healthy, active token ecosystem. Adding the 0.30% holder reward further strengthens this ecosystem, turning holders into partners who benefit from the same trading volume.
This transforms the project's financial logic. Instead of asking 'When can I cash out?', the creator asks 'How can I increase trading volume and community trust?' This fundamental shift is the most powerful scam prevention technique available.
Step-by-Step: Launching a Low-Risk Token on Spawned
A safe launch from start to finish.
Follow this process to implement the prevention techniques from day one.
Cost Analysis: How Launch Fees Filter Scams
A small fee can be a powerful trust signal.
Let's break down how the launch costs correlate with project legitimacy.
| Fee Type | Typical Cost | Scam Risk Signal |
|---|---|---|
| No Launch Fee (0 SOL) | $0 | Very High. Extremely easy to create hundreds of spam tokens with no commitment. |
| Low Launch Fee (0.1 SOL) | ~$20 | Low. Filters out bulk spammers. Shows the creator has minimal skin in the game, funding a proper launch. |
| High Launch Fee (1+ SOL) | $200+ | Variable. Can signal seriousness, but can also be used by sophisticated scams to appear legitimate. |
The ~$20 fee at Spawned hits a sweet spot. It's accessible for genuine creators but presents a meaningful barrier for spammers who operate on volume. An investor seeing this fee knows the creator has made a basic financial commitment to the launch process.
Ready to Launch a Trustworthy Token?
Build trust structurally, not just rhetorically.
Scam prevention starts with your launchpad choice. By launching on Spawned, you build in critical trust signals from the first transaction: sustainable 0.30% creator fees, automatic 0.30% holder rewards, and a clear path to the permanent Token-2022 standard.
Stop trying to convince people you're not a scam. Build a token where the structure proves it for you.
Launch your credible Solana token today. The 0.1 SOL fee is your first investment in a long-term project.
Related Topics
Frequently Asked Questions
Data shows the opposite. A small, transparent fee is often seen as a positive signal. It demonstrates the creator plans to sustain and develop the project, rather than exit quickly. Compared to a 0% fee model—which can hide the intent for a rug pull—a known, reasonable fee builds more trust. The 0.30% is low enough not to impact trading significantly but meaningful enough to fund ongoing development.
Holder rewards create a community of invested stakeholders. When 0.30% of every trade is distributed to holders, they become active participants in the token's ecosystem. This community will naturally monitor the project's health, provide feedback, and call out suspicious activity. It aligns the community's success with the token's trading volume, making them protective allies rather than passive speculators.
Yes, as a key transparency tool. Many scams have no central source of truth—just a Telegram group and a contract address. A professional, live website that details tokenomics, the team's vision, and the fee structure acts as a permanent record of your project's intent. It's the first place potential holders will look to verify legitimacy. Having it built-in and free removes a barrier to providing this essential information.
A rug pull is a malicious act where creators deliberately drain all liquidity and abandon the project, often pre-planned. A project can fail honestly due to lack of interest or execution issues. The techniques here, like enforced creator fees, aim to eliminate the *incentive* for a rug pull by giving creators a sustainable alternative revenue model. This way, if a project fails, it's more likely due to market forces than fraud.
The Token-2022 program includes built-in features for transfer fees, which are used to enforce the perpetual 1% creator fee post-graduation. This is crucial for prevention because it makes the fee structure immutable and transparent on-chain. Once graduated, the 1% fee cannot be maliciously changed or removed, providing permanent, verifiable proof of the project's legitimate economic model to all future investors.
The core principles—sustainable fees, holder rewards, transparency—are universal. However, the specific mechanisms differ by blockchain. Solana's low fees make small percentage rewards feasible. On Ethereum, high gas costs can make small distributions impractical. The structural approach is similar, but the execution depends on the chain's economics. [Explore considerations for Ethereum launches](/use-cases/token/how-to-launch-gaming-token-on-ethereum).
It's competitively positioned to filter scams. Many pure 'meme coin' platforms have negligible or zero fees, leading to an overwhelming amount of spam. More established, complex launchpads can charge significantly more (1-5 SOL or a percentage of raise). The 0.1 SOL (~$20) fee is a middle ground that establishes seriousness without being prohibitive for genuine new creators, effectively raising the barrier to entry for spammers.
Ready to get started?
Join thousands of users who are already building with Spawned. Start your project today - no credit card required.