A new report from blockchain analytics firm Solidus Labs paints a stark picture of fraud risk across Solana’s meme coin economy. In its “2025 Rug Pull Report,” the firm said that 98.6% of tokens launched on Pump.fun showed signs commonly associated with fraudulent behavior, while 93% of liquidity pools analyzed on Raydium displayed patterns linked to so-called soft rug pulls. The findings add to growing concerns that the low-cost, high-speed token creation model on Solana has made the network especially fertile ground for speculative abuse.
Scale of the problem on Pump.fun
Solidus Labs said it examined more than 7 million tokens launched on Pump.fun between January 2024 and March 2025. Of that massive total, fewer than 100,000 maintained liquidity above $1,000. The report argues that this indicates an ecosystem in which the overwhelming majority of newly issued tokens fail to establish meaningful market depth or rapidly lose support after launch.
The research also points to the platform’s bonding curve design as a structural factor in the risk profile. Under this model, token prices rise as additional purchases are made, which can strongly reward creators and the earliest buyers. But that same mechanic can leave later participants exposed to steep losses if momentum fades or insiders exit. In practice, the report suggests, the mechanism can amplify the familiar dynamics of pump-and-dump behavior by encouraging fast speculative inflows without necessarily creating durable liquidity.
Raydium liquidity pools under pressure
Problems identified in the report were not limited to token launches. Solidus Labs also reviewed roughly 388,000 liquidity pools on Raydium, one of the best-known decentralized exchanges in the Solana ecosystem. According to the findings, 93% of those pools showed indicators of “soft rug pulls,” a pattern in which developers or insiders remove funds abruptly after traders have entered the pool.
The financial damage described in the report is material even when measured on a median basis. Solidus Labs said the median loss per incident was $2,832, while one case exceeded $1.9 million. These schemes typically exploit traders who rush into newly created pools in search of outsized upside, only to find that liquidity disappears before they can exit without major losses. The report’s framing suggests that the issue is not simply one of isolated scams, but a broader market structure in which the cost of creating and abandoning speculative products is extremely low.
Regulators and courts are paying closer attention
The report arrives as enforcement pressure around crypto fraud continues to build in the United States. It notes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, along with the Department of Justice, has prioritized prosecution of crypto-related scams, including rug pulls. That shift matters for platforms, developers, and intermediaries that may previously have viewed meme coin speculation as largely outside the reach of aggressive enforcement.
In March 2025, New York state lawmakers proposed legislation aimed at criminalizing code-based fraud, a sign that policymakers are trying to close gaps between traditional fraud concepts and misconduct carried out through smart contracts or onchain market design. The report also references a class action lawsuit accusing Solana-based decentralized exchange Meteora of enabling a $69 million rug pull. Together, these developments indicate that legal scrutiny is moving beyond individual token issuers and increasingly toward the platforms and infrastructure providers that facilitate launches and trading.
Rising compliance and reputational risk for platforms
Solidus Labs framed the issue as a growing challenge not just for traders, but for crypto institutions themselves. The report says the Department of Justice issued an enforcement memo in April 2025 warning that platforms could face fines or even executive liability if they fail to take reasonable steps to mitigate fraudulent activity. That message raises the stakes for exchanges, launch platforms, and service providers operating in fast-moving onchain markets where abuse can spread quickly.
To address these risks, Solidus Labs urged firms to adopt monitoring and screening tools such as Token Sniffer and similar systems capable of flagging elevated danger signals. Among the indicators highlighted were concentrated token ownership and unlocked liquidity, both of which can make a token or pool more vulnerable to manipulation or sudden fund withdrawal. While such tools cannot eliminate fraud, the report suggests they may help platforms and market participants identify warning signs earlier and reduce exposure to the most obvious schemes.
A structural warning for the meme coin market
The broader takeaway from the report is that Solana’s meme coin boom may be carrying systemic weaknesses beneath its high-velocity growth. Solana’s low fees and fast transaction times have made it especially attractive for rapid experimentation and retail speculation. But those same features also lower the cost of launching disposable tokens, rotating narratives, and extracting value from short-lived hype cycles.
For investors, the report is a reminder that eye-catching momentum and social media attention are not substitutes for market quality. Liquidity depth, token distribution, pool structure, and developer behavior remain central risk variables. For platforms, the challenge is becoming harder to ignore: as regulators sharpen their focus, the line between enabling open participation and failing to address obvious abuse may carry increasing legal consequences.
In that sense, the findings from Solidus Labs do more than describe a wave of scams. They suggest that parts of the current Solana meme coin environment may be operating with incentives that naturally favor creators and insiders over late-arriving buyers. If that diagnosis is accurate, then the issue is not only about bad actors, but also about whether the design of launch platforms and liquidity venues is creating conditions where fraudulent behavior can flourish at scale.