What is Rug Pull?
A rug pull is a crypto scam in which the founders of a project suddenly withdraw liquidity, mint and dump tokens, or disable contracts, leaving investors with worthless assets. Rugs are most common in low-quality tokens launched on permissionless DEXs.
Why Rug Pull matters
Understanding Rug Pull is part of building a solid mental model of how Bitcoin, blockchain and Web3 systems actually work. Concepts in the Security category sit at the foundation of the broader stack — get them right and the rest is far easier.
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Related terms
- DEX (Decentralized Exchange) — A smart-contract-based trading protocol.
- Liquidity Pool — A smart contract holding pooled assets for trading.
- Scam (Crypto Scams) — Common fraud patterns targeting crypto users.
More security terms
- Seed Phrase — A human-readable backup of a wallet's private keys.
- Wallet — Software or hardware that manages your private keys.
- 51% Attack — An attack where one party controls majority hash power.
- Cold Storage — Keeping private keys offline for security.
- Custody — Who controls the private keys.
- Slashing — Destroying part of a validator's stake as punishment.
- Multi-Signature (Multisig) — A wallet requiring multiple keys to spend.
- Hardware Wallet — A dedicated device that signs transactions offline.
Keep exploring
Continue with the full blockchain glossary — 136 terms in total — or read the developer blog and FAQ for deeper context.