# How to check a Base meme coin before you buy

No check can prove a Base meme coin is safe, but on baselaunch you can verify the facts that matter before you buy: the contract address, the creator fee of 0 to 10% fixed at launch, the creator's opening buy, whether the coin trades on its curve or in its locked pool, and what the owner can still change.

Numbers checked on chain on 20 October 2026.

The technical detail is in the [docs](https://baselaunch.app/docs#risks).

## How do I know I have the right coin?

Start with the contract address. On baselaunch, anyone can launch any name and image. Names and tickers are not unique or verified, and a logo can copy a real project. The contract address is the only identity a coin has.

- Get the address from a source you trust, then compare it in full with the address on the coin page.
- Do not rely on the ticker or the image.
- Check the pair the coin trades against: ETH, USDC, cbBTC or a tokenized stock. The pair is fixed for life, and the price you see is in that pair asset.

## What will each trade on this coin cost me?

Read the creator fee before you buy. It is shown on the token page and applies to every buy and sell, on top of the base trading fee, on the curve and after graduation in the pool.

Charges on every trade

| Charge | Rate | When it applies |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Base trading fee, curve | 1% | Every buy and sell on the bonding curve |
| Base trading fee, pool | 1% | Every buy and sell after graduation |
| Creator fee | 0 to 10% | Every trade, fixed at launch |
| Base fee and creator fee together | At most 20% | Cap written in the contracts |
| Launch tax | Up to 98% | Buys only, in the first 3 seconds |

Because fees are charged in both directions, buying and selling straight away loses money even if the price does not move.

The launch tax falls fast. On a coin with no creator fee, a buy pays:

Launch tax by second after launch

| Seconds after launch | Launch tax on the buy |
| --- | --- |
| 0 | 98% |
| 1 | 6.18% |
| 2 | 0.19% |
| 3 | 0% |

Sells and wallet-to-wallet transfers are never taxed. The full split is on [fees](https://baselaunch.app/fees).

## How much of the supply did the creator buy at launch?

A creator can make an opening buy in the launch transaction, and that buy pays no launch tax. A creator can hold a large share from the opening buy and sell it at any time. Look at the launch transaction to see how much was bought.

What a first buy receives on a fresh ETH-pair coin, with the base fee and no creator fee:

Tokens a first buy receives on an ETH pair

| First buy | Tokens received | Share of supply |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0.01 ETH | 5,858,335 | 0.6% |
| 0.1 ETH | 55,649,241 | 5.6% |
| 0.5 ETH | 227,586,207 | 22.8% |
| 1 ETH | 370,786,517 | 37.1% |
| 2 ETH | 540,983,607 | 54.1% |

A launch can also name up to 32 further wallets as exempt from the launch tax, for example a team's own buying wallets. The list is fixed in the launch transaction.

## Is the coin on the curve or in a pool, and is the liquidity locked?

Every coin starts on a bonding curve that fills every buy and sell itself. When 714,285,714 tokens have been bought (4.2 ETH in the curve on an ETH pair), the coin graduates to a Uniswap v4 pool. Other pairs have their own target.

After graduation the supply sits like this:

Where the supply sits after graduation

| Holder | Tokens | Share of supply |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Buyers' wallets (sold by the curve) | 714,285,714 | 71.4% |
| Uniswap v4 pool, locked liquidity | 204,081,633 | 20.4% |
| Locked for good, never circulating | 81,632,653 | 8.2% |

The pool position is held by a liquidity locker with no withdraw function. Graduation is not a quality signal, and many coins never reach it. Once the last sellable token is bought, the curve stops accepting sells; normally the pool opens in the same transaction and selling continues there.

## What can the creator and the owner still change?

The coin contract has no mint function and no owner. Nobody can mint more coins, freeze or blacklist a wallet, pause transfers, add a tax after launch, raise the creator fee or take the pool's liquidity.

The creator can change only two things: where future fees go, and whether buyback and lock is on.

The protocol owner keeps some powers:

- Redirect any coin's creator fee recipient, after a 3-day public notice announced on chain.
- Move the address the protocol share is paid to.
- Turn a coin's buyback off, never on.
- Change settings for future launches only. Each coin copies its fee terms at creation.

None of the launcher contracts is a proxy or has an upgrade function. The full list is on [security](https://baselaunch.app/security).

## Risks

- The contracts have not been independently audited yet.
- Names, tickers and images are not verified. Check the contract address.
- Every trade pays the 1% trading fee and a creator fee of up to 10%.
- Buys in the first 3 seconds pay a launch tax of up to 98%.
- A creator can hold a large share from the opening buy and sell it at any time.
- On a pair other than ETH, the pair asset's own risk adds to the coin's.
- Prices, market caps and charts on the site are estimates read from the chain and can lag behind it.
- Transactions on Base are final. Nobody can reverse a trade or return a loss.

Nothing here is financial advice. Only spend what you can afford to lose.

## Questions

### Can any check prove a Base meme coin is safe?

No. Checks show facts you can verify, such as the contract address, the fees and whether liquidity is locked, but they cannot tell you what a coin will be worth. Meme coins are highly speculative and most lose their value.

### Can the creator of a baselaunch coin mint more coins or block my wallet?

No. The 1,000,000,000 supply is minted once into the bonding curve, and the coin contract has no mint function and no owner. It is a plain ERC-20 with no way to freeze, blacklist or pause transfers.

### Can the creator fee go up after I buy?

No. The creator fee is chosen at launch, from 0 to 10%, and fixed for the life of the coin. Nobody can add a tax after launch or raise the creator fee.

### Is the liquidity locked after a baselaunch coin graduates?

Yes. The Uniswap v4 position is held by a liquidity locker that has no withdraw function, together with 81,632,653 coins locked at graduation. No key, including the owner's, can take it out.

### Have the baselaunch contracts been audited?

The contracts have not been independently audited yet. An audit is part of our plan. The main launcher contracts are verified on Basescan and cannot be upgraded.

Every cost is on [fees](https://baselaunch.app/fees), and what the owner can and cannot do is on [security](https://baselaunch.app/security).

Meme coins are highly speculative and most lose their value. Nothing here is financial advice.

Last updated 2026-10-21

Canonical page: https://baselaunch.app/learn/check-a-base-meme-coin-before-you-buy