Risk check
Liquidity lock checker
'Liquidity locked' is the most over-trusted phrase in token marketing. It is a claim with three variables — how much is locked, by whom, and until when — and the phrase on its own carries none of them. ScanZX reports the observed pool depth, the locked share and the unlock date where they can be established, and reports missing lock data as uncertainty rather than as reassurance.
What a lock is protecting you from
When a token trades on an automated market maker, the pool holds both the token and a quote asset, and whoever holds the liquidity-provider position can withdraw both. If that position is held by the project and they withdraw it, the price collapses to approximately nothing — not because anybody sold, but because there is no longer anything to sell into.
A lock puts the LP position in a contract that will not release it until a set date. That is a genuine protection against exactly one failure mode. It does nothing about a large holder dumping, nothing about the contract's owner powers, and nothing about the pool simply being too small to matter.
The three numbers that decide what a lock is worth
Depth. How many dollars are actually in the pool. This is the number that decides what your exit costs, and it is routinely much smaller than the market capitalisation being advertised. A token showing a large notional value on a pool of a few thousand dollars is not a liquid market, whatever the chart looks like.
Locked share. What fraction of the LP position the lock actually covers. A lock over ten percent of the pool leaves the other ninety withdrawable, and it is described in marketing with the same two words as a lock over all of it.
Unlock date. When the lock expires. A lock expiring in six days and a lock expiring in three years are different propositions, and the difference is invisible in the phrase 'liquidity is locked'. ScanZX reports the date so you are comparing dates rather than adjectives.
Alongside these, ScanZX compares pooled liquidity against the previous scan's snapshot where one exists. A material fall between two scans is a finding in its own right, and often arrives before anything else does.
When there is no lock data
Lock detection depends on recognising the contract holding the LP position. Lockers that ScanZX does not recognise, custom vesting arrangements and positions held directly by a wallet all produce the same outcome: no lock data.
That result is recorded as uncertainty. It lowers the report's confidence score and it does not lower the risk score. This is the rule the whole model is built on — missing data never makes a token look safer — and the liquidity check is where it matters most, because 'we could not find a lock' and 'there is no lock' are very different statements that a careless tool would print identically.
What a finding proves — and what it does not
What a positive signal shows
- Observed pool depth shows how much was actually pooled at scan time, which is what determines exit slippage.
- A detected lock with an expiry date shows that a specific share of the LP position is held by a locker contract until that date.
- A fall in pooled liquidity against a previous scan shows that depth has materially decreased between the two.
- A pool depth far below the advertised market capitalisation shows the notional value is not backed by tradeable depth.
What it does not show
- A detected lock does not prove the liquidity is safe. Check the locked share and the expiry date — a partial or short lock is still a lock.
- No lock data does not prove there is no lock. It means ScanZX could not establish one, which is why it lowers confidence rather than raising risk.
- Deep liquidity does not prove a token is sound. Depth can be provided and withdrawn, and a liquid token can still be a bad holding.
- None of this is a recommendation. Liquidity data describes market structure, not whether to buy or sell anything.
Limitations
- Liquidity is read from indexed DEX pair data and reflects the moment of the scan. It can change in the next block.
- Lock detection covers recognisable locker contracts. Custom or unusual arrangements report as no lock data.
- Tokens with no indexed pair return no market data at all rather than a zero — no pair and an empty pool are different findings.
- Change detection needs a previous scan of the same token, so it is unavailable on a first scan.
Any check that cannot run is listed in the report as unavailable and lowers its confidence score — it never lowers the risk score. The methodology page sets out how the weights and the confidence model work, and the status page shows which providers are configured.
Common questions
Does locked liquidity mean a token cannot rug?
No. A lock addresses one route — withdrawal of the pooled assets — for as long as it lasts and for the share it covers. Supply concentration, owner privileges and a simple loss of interest can all still take the value to nothing.
What does ScanZX do when it cannot find lock information?
It reports the check as unavailable and lowers the report's confidence score. It does not treat absent lock data as evidence of anything, in either direction.
Why does the pool look small when the market cap looks large?
Market capitalisation is price multiplied by supply, and price comes from the last trade in the pool. A thin pool can produce a high price on very little volume, so a large notional value on a small pool is common and is exactly the gap worth noticing.
Chain coverage
The deep EVM scan runs on five chains. Each chain page lists which checks are configured there and the risk patterns that recur on it.
Related reading and checks
Guides that go deeper on this subject:
- How to read a liquidity lock — The three numbers behind the phrase, and why the phrase alone tells you nothing.
- What is a rug pull? — The routes to the same outcome, and which of them are observable in advance.
- Risk score vs confidence score — Two numbers that answer different questions, and why reading one without the other misleads.
Other checks in the same report:
Cryptoassets are high risk and you could lose all money used to buy them. ScanZX reports observed warning signs and data gaps at scan time. It never certifies that a token is safe, it is not financial advice, and nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell. Checks that cannot run are reported as unavailable and reduce the confidence score. Always carry out your own further verification.