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Has this dev launched coins before? How to check a deployer's record

By , Whodl

Every coin has a deployer: the wallet that paid to create it. That wallet has a history, and on most launchpads it is the single most predictive piece of information about a new coin. A deployer whose last six coins went to zero within a day is telling you something about the seventh.

Finding the deployer

On Solana, the creator is recorded when the mint is made. Launchpads such as pump.fun expose it directly; for other coins Whodl reads the mint's creation transaction. On Ethereum-style chains the contract creator is the address that sent the deployment transaction.

Whodl prints the deployer on each coin page and in the bot's reply as "this is coin #N from this dev wallet that Whodl has seen".

What to look at in the record

Four things, in this order:

  1. How many launches. One is a first-timer. Three in a month is a habit. Twenty is a factory.
  2. How they ended. Whodl tracks the market cap of every coin it has seen from first sight to peak to now. "4 of the earlier ones are down 90%+" is the sentence that matters.
  3. What the dev still holds here. A dev holding 2% is aligned. A dev holding 20% across several wallets is the biggest seller in waiting, and the "if they sell" line on the coin page estimates the price impact.
  4. Fee claims and transfers out. Launchpads pay creators a share of trading fees. A dev who claims fees every hour and sends the SOL straight to an exchange is cashing out while the coin is still being promoted. Whodl counts claims, the SOL claimed, and where it went.

Reading dev activity without overreacting

A fee claim is not a rug. Developers are allowed to get paid. What changes the picture is the combination:

  • Frequent claims and the dev's own token balance falling and SOL moving to an exchange is a dev leaving.
  • Claims with the dev's balance stable and SOL staying in the wallet is a dev getting paid.

Likewise, a deployer with earlier failed coins is not automatically a scammer. Most coins fail. The signal is a pattern: launches spaced days apart, each one bundled the same way, each one abandoned once the first wave of buyers arrives.

Linked wallets around the dev

Deployers rarely hold in the deployer wallet. They fund side wallets, often right before launch, and those wallets buy in the first block. Whodl's bubble map draws the funding links, so you can see which top holders were funded by the deployer or by the same source as the deployer.

When those side wallets appear on a second coin from the same dev, the coin page calls them a crew seen before.

A checklist

  • How many coins has this deployer launched, and how did they end?
  • How much does the dev hold now, across linked wallets, not just the deployer?
  • Is the dev claiming fees, how often, and where does the SOL go?
  • Did the dev's side wallets buy in the first block?

Every answer is on the coin's page under coin reports, with the transactions to check.

How this guide was made: written by Jack Shard with AI assistance, based on the measurements Whodl makes. Last reviewed Oct 19, 2026. Details on the about page.

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