Rug Pull
Scam: project creators withdraw liquidity and vanish with investor funds.
Rug pull: classic crypto scam. 1) Create token on DEX, add liquidity ($100k), 2) Hype, retail buys, 3) Mint hidden tokens, 4) Drain pool liquidity (sell at high), 5) -99% in minute. Red flags: anon team, no audit, top 10 >50%, no locked liquidity.
In plain words
Classic scam: creators of a new token add their own liquidity (e.g. $100k), hype it up, people buy, price rises. At some point creators drain all liquidity from the pool and vanish. The token drops -99% in a minute. Victims can't recover the funds. Happens daily on hundreds of memes.
Example
Squid Game token (Nov 2021): pumped $0.01→$2861 in week, devs pulled $3.4M, price→$0.003. SafeMoon (2021): -99% after liquidity drain. Hundreds of meme rugs daily on BSC/Solana. Rule: never buy 1-day-old token.
Also known as: rug pull, rug, exit scam