Token locks explained: liquidity locks, team locks and how to verify them

A token lock is a smart contract that holds tokens until a set date. Nobody, not even the person who created the lock, can take them out early. Projects use locks to show buyers that some tokens cannot be sold or withdrawn for a while. Used well, a lock is one of the clearest signals a new project can give. Read carelessly, it can give a false sense of safety.

Liquidity locks

When a project creates a trading pool, it deposits its token and a paired coin, and receives pool tokens that represent that deposit. Whoever holds the pool tokens can withdraw the liquidity. If they do it suddenly, the price collapses and holders cannot sell; this is the classic "rug pull".

Locking the pool tokens removes that option until the unlock date. It does not make the token valuable, but it makes one specific exit impossible for a known period.

Team and vesting locks

Projects also lock tokens set aside for the team, partners or the treasury, so that they cannot be dumped on the market at launch. A lock can be created for another wallet as the beneficiary: the tokens go to that wallet when the lock ends.

What a lock does not protect against

• A lock covers only the tokens inside it. If most of the liquidity sits outside the lock, the lock means little.
• A short lock ends soon. Check the unlock date, not just the word "locked".
• A lock says nothing about the token contract. An owner who can mint supply or raise the sell tax can still hurt holders.
• Price can fall for many reasons that have nothing to do with fraud.

How to verify a lock yourself

• Find the lock contract and the lock entry for the token, using the address published by the project.
• Check the token in the lock: is it the real pool token or token contract, not a lookalike?
• Check the amount, and compare it with the total supply or the total pool tokens.
• Check the unlock date and the beneficiary wallet.
• Check that the lock contract is a known one whose address is public.

PenkLock

PenkLock is the time-lock of PEPU BANK. It locks any ERC-20 token, for yourself or for another wallet, on Pepe Unchained, Ethereum, Robinhood Chain and Monad. When the lock expires, the tokens are sent to the beneficiary automatically, and a manual release stays available as a fallback. Anyone can look up who locked a token, how much and until when.

The lock contract addresses are public: Ethereum 0x1e5fB413b879a3235aa958A0e88F9981C9D46768, Robinhood Chain 0x6728e57b41Baef48Ef2CEbd582168d713249dEFA and Monad 0xA44C73f44A9e398f78A6B93510cac04158a0D258. Creating a lock costs a flat fee, shown on the page before you sign; on Pepe Unchained that fee buys and burns PENK.