Freeze authority is a permission on a Solana token that lets one address freeze any holder's token account. A frozen account cannot send or sell, which is why a live freeze authority is the classic honeypot setup.
When an SPL token is created, its mint account can name a freeze authority. That address can call an instruction that freezes any token account of that mint. A frozen account still shows its balance in your wallet, but every transfer out of it fails, including sales on a DEX.
It exists for legitimate reasons: regulated stablecoins use it to comply with sanctions or court orders. That is why USDC has one. In a memecoin, there is no such reason.
A honeypot lets you buy and blocks you from selling. With a live freeze authority, the creator can watch buyers come in and freeze their accounts, leaving only their own wallets able to sell into the pool. The chart keeps going up because nobody else can sell, which attracts more buyers, until the creator drains the liquidity.
The freeze authority is stored in the mint account. Explorers show it as "Freeze Authority" on the token page; a revoked one shows as empty or null. TokenGuard reads it directly from chain state and flags it as "Creator can freeze your tokens", which on its own makes the verdict DANGER.
Mint authority controls supply: it can create new tokens. Freeze authority controls accounts: it can lock them. They are separate permissions and either can be revoked independently. pump.fun launches revoke both by default, so a pump.fun token that somehow keeps either is worth a second look.
Revoking sets the authority to nobody, permanently. It cannot be restored. That is why "freeze authority revoked" is a meaningful signal, while promises in a Telegram group that the team "will not use it" are not.
Yes. Regulated stablecoins keep it to comply with legal obligations. TokenGuard treats a short list of established tokens like USDC, USDT and wrapped SOL as trusted.
No. It is a public field of the mint account. What can hide risk are Token-2022 extensions like a permanent delegate or accounts frozen by default, which TokenGuard checks too.
Check whether your token account is frozen in your wallet or on an explorer. If it is not frozen yet, the creator can still freeze it at any time.
See the tokens TokenGuard has checked and what happened to them 24 hours later.