The Solana Token Launch Checklist
You’re considering a community token for a project you run. Before you click "launch" on pump.fun or deploy an SPL, walk this checklist. Twelve questions a competent attorney would ask you. Answer them honestly.
Does your token pass the Howey test?
US law (Howey, 1946): an investment contract = money + common enterprise + expectation of profit from the efforts of others. Check all four boxes and you’re selling an unregistered security.
Answer honestly: if your pitch is "buy this, we’ll build, number go up" — you are probably selling a security. Utility tokens that do something inside your product (not just trade) have a stronger argument. Ask your attorney. Don’t guess.
Where are your buyers?
US buyers pull you into SEC/CFTC/FinCEN jurisdiction. EU buyers trigger MiCA. UK buyers trigger FCA financial-promotion rules. Singapore has the MAS digital-payment-token framework.
Most token launches geo-block US buyers at the website level, not at the chain level (which is impossible). That geo-block is a legal fiction but it’s what most lawyers recommend. Enforcement risk remains.
Have you written a plain-English risk disclosure for buyers?
"You can lose 100% of your money. This token has no intrinsic value. The founder holds X% of supply. Here is the vesting schedule. Here is what happens if the team walks away."
Write it. Publish it at a stable URL. Link it from every promotional post. Mandatory disclosures do not make an unregistered offering legal, but their absence makes an already-shaky offering indefensible.
Does your founder/team supply vest on-chain?
A vesting schedule enforced by smart contract (not a Google Sheet) is the minimum credible signal that the team won’t dump on day one.
Pattern: 10-20% at launch, 6-month cliff, 2-year linear unlock thereafter, all enforced on-chain via a streaming contract (Jupiter Streamflow, Bonfida, or a custom program). No cliff = assume rug.
Is the initial liquidity locked?
Unlocked LP = the team can pull all ETH/SOL out of the pool at any moment. "Rug pull" in the literal sense.
Lock LP for 6-24 months via a third-party vault (Team Finance, Bonfida lock, or a Solana program you publish). Publish the lock contract address. If LP isn’t locked, say so explicitly in your risk disclosure.
Have you revoked mint and freeze authority?
On Solana, the token creator can keep the ability to mint new tokens (dilute holders to zero) and freeze individual wallets (lock buyers out). Both are centralized kill-switches.
For a fair-launch community token, revoke both. Confirm via spl-token display. Publish the revocation transaction IDs. If you keep mint authority for a legitimate reason (inflation schedule), disclose it explicitly.
Do you understand the tax treatment of your launch?
In most jurisdictions, receiving LP fees, selling tokens from team allocation, and receiving airdrops are taxable events. Selling your team allocation into the bid is treated like selling stock. Self-dealing between your own wallets can create wash-trading issues.
Keep records from day one: every wallet, every transaction, every conversion to fiat. Hire a crypto-literate CPA before launch, not after.
Are you paying a market maker? Is that disclosed?
Paid market makers are common in crypto. They’re also legally and ethically fraught if the buyers don’t know there’s a paid party on the other side of the order book.
Disclose any paid market-making arrangement. Include the scope (which exchange, which time window). Don’t pay a "performance bonus" to an MM tied to price — that’s closer to manipulation than liquidity provision.
Are your influencers disclosing paid promotion?
Under FTC rules (US) and ASA rules (UK), paid or token-compensated promotion must be disclosed. Every major jurisdiction has an equivalent.
If you pay an influencer with tokens or fiat to tweet about your token, they must disclose the relationship. Send them the disclosure language yourself; do not assume they know.
What happens in the first 30 seconds after launch?
Pump.fun and direct Raydium launches are targeted by snipers who will 10x the price in the first block and dump on retail at minute 2.
Options: anti-sniper contracts (max buy limits for first N blocks), Dutch auction launches (price discovers downward), whitelisted fair-launch allocations. Pick one before launch, not after retail is rugged.
What are you actually promising?
"We’ll build features X, Y, Z" becomes a promise the moment money changes hands. If you don’t build, holders have a grievance that may rise to fraud.
Underpromise. Ship a concrete, short, achievable roadmap. Do not promise returns, price levels, or exchange listings. Do not say "we’re going to the moon." Write the roadmap as if a regulator will read it next year.
If you decide to walk away, what happens?
Most tokens eventually lose momentum. Having an honest "this project is sunsetting" plan ready on day one is a sign of competence.
Define in advance: what signals you’ll use to decide, how you’ll announce it, how remaining treasury is distributed, how contract ownership is transferred or renounced. Publish this on day one. Buyers deserve to know the worst case.
Want the full launch kit?
The paid Septim Solana Launch Kit expands this checklist into ~200 pages: sample disclosure documents, vesting contract templates, an SPL token deployment walkthrough, sample community-commitment letter, boilerplate FAQ for holders, a list of 15 real-world rug-pulls and what they had in common. $99 founding rate for the first 100 buyers (standard $199 after). Launching May 2026.