How do you tell a launch is bundled?
Short answer Look at who bought in the first seconds, not at the contract checks. A bundled launch passes mint, freeze and liquidity checks; it shows up as wallets that bought together, were funded together, or sell into one wallet.
A bundled launch is one where the creator, or a group close to the creator, buys the first slice of supply through many wallets at once. Each wallet holds a small share, so the holder list looks spread out. Added together, the group holds a large share bought at launch prices, and it can sell into everyone who comes after.
There is a quick check that traders run before they buy. This lesson walks through it, says which steps PumpPill reads for you, and says which ones you still do by hand.
First, ignore the green checkmarks
A bundled launch passes the contract checks. Mint authority revoked, freeze authority revoked and liquidity burned all come back clean on a bundled token, because the bundle is in who bought, not in the code (Scorp Labs). A green rug-check score does not rule out a bundle.
Bundling is also a product people buy. Launch tools advertise buying a large share of supply across dozens of wallets in the opening block: one tool's own site, Proxima, advertises about 30% of supply across 55 wallets. On Robinhood Chain, a bundler sold by Smithii for the Trench launchpad offers up to 20 wallets buying in the same block the curve opens, and a "bundle sell" that releases supply in tranches "to avoid triggering panic", according to its own product page. Some vendors claim their launches are built to look clean on bubble maps. These are the vendors' own claims, and we do not link to them.
So the check is about the buyers.
The quick check, step by step
1. Who bought in the first seconds, and how much
The tell is a burst of buying in the first seconds from wallets nobody could have coordinated by chance. One guide treats three or more buys in the slot the token was created in as a bundle (Scorp Labs).
What PumpPill shows. Paste the contract at /scan and open the Bundle section. It asks "Did insiders load the launch, and are they still in?" and lists the launch wallets, the SOL each spent and how many seconds after launch each one bought. On Robinhood Chain the read gives the count of launch buyers and the share of supply they bought.
2. Did they buy together
Many wallets buying early is not proof on its own. Wallets that are tied together are. The PumpPill Solana read looks for six marks and names the ones it finds: buying in the same slot, going through one Jito bundle, sharing one address lookup table, paying identical minimum fees, being filled by one multi-wallet transaction, and sending sale proceeds to one wallet. One mark can be chance. Several on the same group is a pattern.
These marks do not depend on a shared funder. That matters because most of the evasion methods described in the next step are aimed at hiding the funder.
3. Who funded them
Fresh wallets paid by the same wallet are one buyer. Bundlers know this, so they fund through exchange withdrawals or swap services, and through throwaway hop wallets. One documented case had 68 wallets funded through one swap service (Webacy).
What PumpPill shows. A funder note when one wallet paid more than one launch buyer, and a plain line when the funding could not be traced. It also tags a launch wallet that was seen in earlier rugs, and flags a funder that funded earlier rugs too. Untraced funding is an open question, not a pass.
4. Are they still holding, or have they sold
A group still holding a large share is supply waiting to be sold into you. A group that has already sold out took its profit and left. Checkers differ on whether they show the bundle at launch or what it holds now, and that difference is the whole story (Scorp Labs).
What PumpPill shows. How much of what the group bought it has sold, or the share of supply it still holds together, with the time the launch was read. On Robinhood Chain the read also asks what the pool could pay the group at today's price, and flags a group holding more than the pool could pay out.
5. Is the price going sideways while insiders shrink
The slow version of a bundle is a flat chart while the insiders' balance keeps falling. A single snapshot of the holder list looks clean at any moment. It only shows up over time. Bubble Maps lists the signs: a stable cluster breaking into smaller wallets, the top holder list churning fast, and new links between wallets that were not linked before (Bubblemaps guide).
By hand, for now. Open the holder list twice, an hour apart, and compare the top wallets.
6. Who is posting it
Search X by the contract address, never the ticker. Copycat tokens can share a ticker, so a ticker search mixes them together.
What PumpPill shows. The read's X line counts the real accounts that posted the contract and filters out bot and shill accounts. In the Trade Bot, the Scan reply carries the same line.
7. The checks you still do by hand
Some steps in the usual check are not in the PumpPill read yet. Do these yourself:
- The image. Hover the token image and check whether the same picture was used on earlier launches.
- Matching wallets. Look for top holders with near-identical small balances, or wallets created at the same time.
- Fees against market cap. Compare the total fees the token has paid with its market cap. Fake activity can buy a high trade count but not real fees. We have not tested this one on our data yet, so we do not print it.
- Tax. On Robinhood Chain and other EVM chains, check the buy and sell tax. A 10% buy tax plus a 10% sell tax means the price has to rise more than 20% before you are back to even.
Bundled does not mean walk away
A bundle is not a rug by itself. It is supply that one party controls. What matters next is whether demand shows up and whether the group can sell into it. The bundle checker lesson goes deeper on reading the Bundle section line by line.
What the check does not tell you
- "No group found" means the read did not find one with the marks it looks for. A careful bundler can buy with wallets that share none of them.
- Unread is not clean. If the launch buyers were not read, treat the bundle question as open.
- The launch wallet list is a record of who bought. It is not a live balance for each wallet, so read the time stamp.
Where to run it
- On the site: paste the contract at /scan.
- On DexScreener: Lens puts the same read, "Am I early?", "What's my risk?" and the reasons, on the token page you already have open.
- In Telegram: paste the contract into the PumpPill Trade Bot and tap Scan before you buy.
The lesson is the method. The product is where you apply it.
Paste any Solana or Robinhood Chain contract into the PumpPill trade bot: you get the risk read first, then buy or sell in one tap, with limit orders and auto-sells.