Liquidity Locked vs Burned: What LP Lock Means

"LP locked" sits right next to "contract renounced" in every launch post. I used to read it as "can't rug". It isn't. It answers one question, whether the creator can pull the pool, and only for as long as the lock lasts. Here is how it works and where it falls short.

What are LP tokens?

LP tokens are the receipt for liquidity. When a creator adds their token plus BNB, SOL or another base asset to a DEX pool, the pool mints LP tokens to their wallet. Whoever holds those LP tokens can hand them back to the pool and withdraw their share of both sides.

That's what a liquidity pull is: the deployer redeems the LP tokens, takes the base asset out, and leaves buyers holding a token with nothing to sell into. Lock and burn are two ways of taking those LP tokens out of the creator's hands.

What does locked liquidity mean?

The creator deposits the LP tokens into a locker contract with an unlock date. Until that date, nobody can withdraw them. After it, the wallet that locked them can claim them back and pull the pool like nothing happened.

So a lock is a timer, not a guarantee. A one-year lock protects you for a year. A lock that ends in three days protects you for three days, and on a memecoin that may be the whole life of the chart.

What does burned liquidity mean?

The creator sends the LP tokens to an address nobody controls, usually the zero address or 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD. They're gone for good, so that share of the pool can never be withdrawn by anyone, including the creator.

Burned is the stronger signal for a pure memecoin. The trade-off is that it's permanent, so a real project that wants to move liquidity later can't. That's why some legitimate teams lock instead of burn.

Is burned liquidity better than locked?

For the "can they pull the pool" question, yes. Burned can't expire. Locked can, and the date is the whole point. A long lock on a token with a real team is fine. A short lock on an anonymous launch is close to no lock at all.

Either way, check the percentage. Both only cover the LP tokens that were actually burned or locked.

What are the lock traps people miss?

• Partial locks. Say the pool minted 100 LP tokens, 80 went to a locker and 20 stayed in the deployer's wallet. The post says "LP locked". The deployer can still pull 20% of the pool at any time, which on a thin pool is most of the exit liquidity worth having.
• Short or expiring locks. Read the unlock date, not just the word "locked". Also watch it as it gets close. Unless the creator extends it, the pull can come right after the unlock.
• Liquidity added after the lock. If the creator adds more liquidity later, the new LP tokens land in their wallet, unlocked, unless they lock those too.
• Wrong pool. A token can have several pairs. The lock you're shown may be on a small side pool, while the main pool everyone trades in is unlocked. Check the pair you would actually sell into.
• Unknown lockers. A "locker" is just a contract. If it isn't a well-known one with verified source, it may have a withdraw path for its owner. Treat a custom locker like an unlocked LP.

What doesn't locked or burned liquidity protect you from?

Everything that doesn't involve removing the pool. A burned LP doesn't help if you can't sell, and a locked pool can still be drained through the token side. A liquidity pull is only one of the four rug pull types.

• Honeypots and sell taxes. If the contract blocks your sell or charges a 50% sell tax, the pool's depth doesn't matter. Locked liquidity only means the pool can't be pulled. It says nothing about whether your sell goes through. That's what a sell simulation is for.
• Minting. If the owner can still mint, they can create new tokens and sell them into the pool, taking out the base asset without touching a single LP token. This is why owner status matters as much as the lock.
• Dev and insider dumps. A team holding a big slice of supply sells it into the locked pool. The pool stays, but most of its value leaves with them. Same end result as a pull.

How do you check if liquidity is locked or burned?

On an EVM chain like BNB, find the pair address on the DEX, then open that pair contract (not the token) on the block explorer. Look at its Holders tab. That list shows who owns the LP tokens and how much.

• A dead or zero address holding the LP means that share is burned.
• A known locker contract holding it means locked. Open the lock on the locker's site to see the unlock date and the wallet that can claim it.
• Any LP in the deployer's wallet, or in a fresh wallet funded by the deployer, is unlocked and pullable.

Concentrated-liquidity pools, like Uniswap V3 style ones, issue the position as an NFT instead of a fungible LP token. The same logic applies: check who owns the position NFT. Arc's Uniswap v3 pools work this way (see how to check an Arc token). Uniswap v4 goes further: pools live inside one shared contract with no LP token to inspect at all, which is why on Robinhood Chain the exit-depth test matters more than any lock figure (see the Robinhood Chain memecoin guide).

How does this work on Solana?

On Solana AMM pools that issue LP tokens, the check is the same idea: see whether those LP tokens were burned or are still sitting in a wallet that can redeem them. Many launchpad migrations burn the LP automatically, but check the specific pool rather than assuming. Scanners like RugCheck report an "LP locked" percentage, but on a token with several pools that number mostly reflects outside liquidity providers, so read it next to the pool count. We break that down in MoonRadar vs RugCheck. The rest of a Solana pre-buy check, mint and freeze authority plus Token-2022 extensions, is in the Solana token safety check.

Then check the token's mint and freeze authorities. A burned LP means nothing if the mint authority can print supply or the freeze authority can lock your token account.

How does MoonRadar check liquidity?

Liquidity and its lock are step 4 of the pre-buy safety checklist. MoonRadar measures liquidity on every scan, and for coins it calls it shows how much of the LP is locked or burned. On Robinhood Chain and ARC it also probes exit depth on-chain, how much you could actually sell before the price collapses, which matters more than any lock figure. That sits in the shield score next to the sell check (its own on-chain test on HOOD and ARC, GoPlus's simulation on BNB), buy and sell tax, owner status and the deployer's rug history, so a burned LP on a honeypot still shows as a honeypot.

Paste any token on HOOD, BNB, ARC or Solana into the scanner to see it before you trade. It's non-custodial, so you sign every trade in your own wallet. A locked pool is one check passed, not a reason to buy.