Solana Token-2022 Permanent Delegate Rug Pull Factory
Summary
An industrial-scale pattern of fraud on the Solana blockchain exploits the Token-2022 Permanent Delegate extension, a legitimate feature that grants a mint-level authority the unconditional ability to burn or transfer any holder's tokens without their signature. First publicly documented in September 2024 by a Jupiter Core Working Group member, the exploit has since scaled into an automated rug pull factory pattern where scammers burn victim tokens seconds after purchase. RugCheck.xyz identifies the Permanent Delegate extension as a significant risk indicator on a substantial fraction of newly launched Solana tokens.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 1 more
Timeline(11 events)
2022-01-01
Solana Labs introduces the Token-2022 program with optional mint extensions, including the PermanentDelegate extension, intended for use cases such as regulatory compliance and automated payment recovery.
Solana Official Documentation2024-03-01
SLERF meme coin developer accidentally burns 50,000 SOL (approximately $10 million) using burn authority after revoking mint authority, demonstrating the irreversible nature of token burns on Solana and raising public awareness of token-level authorities.
CoinSpeaker — Solana Scammers Are Burning Tokens from Inside User Wallets2024-02-06
Solana mainnet halts for approximately five hours due to a program execution bug, the most recent confirmed major outage prior to 2025.
Helius Dev Blog — A Complete History of Solana Outages2024-09-03
Slorg, a Jupiter Core Working Group member, publicly discloses on X that scammers are exploiting the Token-2022 Permanent Delegate extension to burn victim tokens seconds after purchase. Documents the RED token case in which a user's tokens were burned seven seconds after a confirmed swap.
CoinTelegraph via TradingView — Scammers have found a way to burn tokens from inside Solana wallets2024-09-04
Blockchain security firms Beosin and PeckShield confirm and analyze the Permanent Delegate exploit. CoinTelegraph, CoinPaper, CryptoTimes, and CoinSpeaker publish coverage. Jupiter and RugCheck.xyz add Permanent Delegate extension indicators to their interfaces.
CryptoTimes — Scammers Burn Solana Tokens Seconds After User Purchase2025-02-27
SEC Division of Corporate Finance issues statement clarifying regulatory treatment of memecoins, acknowledging the broader Solana meme coin fraud environment without directly targeting the Permanent Delegate mechanism.
Solidus Labs 2025 Rug Pull Report2025-03-01
New York State lawmakers propose legislation to criminalize code-based fraud on blockchain platforms. SEC establishes Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit.
Solidus Labs 2025 Rug Pull Report2025-04-07
DOJ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly prioritizes digital asset scam prosecutions.
Solidus Labs 2025 Rug Pull Report2025-05-01
Solidus Labs publishes 2025 Rug Pull Report, finding 98.6% of Pump.fun tokens and 93% of Raydium pools exhibited rug pull or pump-and-dump characteristics across over 7 million tokens analyzed from January 2024 to March 2025.
Solidus Labs 2025 Rug Pull Report2025-12-09
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon (SDNY) grants plaintiffs permission to amend and refile a RICO class-action complaint against Pump.fun, Jito Labs, the Solana Foundation, Solana Labs, and related executives, with alleged losses of $4 to $5.5 billion.
Pump.fun and Solana: $5.5 Billion RICO Class Action — Crypto Valley Journal2026-01-01
Academic research (SolRugDetector, arXiv:2603.24625) covering January–June 2025 identifies 76,469 rug pull tokens out of 100,063 newly issued tokens (76.42%), $151 million in traceable direct losses, and 78 large-scale fraud syndicates on Solana, providing quantitative confirmation of factory-scale automated fraud operations.
SolRugDetector: Investigating Rug Pulls on Solana — arXiv:2603.24625Decision Log
- hash: 2wBDYwbosDj5u4fg4cK5EuyhuDgv2UEjU6dEC7YHK3FV
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/28/2026, 3:47:50 AM
last updated: 5/28/2026, 3:48:01 AM
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