Memecoin and CTO glossary

Updated 2 September 2026 · Belphor Research · the data behind this guide

Plain-language definitions of the terms that matter in memecoin and Solana trading. Each one is written to stand alone, so you can quote it, link it, or settle an argument with it.

Takeovers and tokens

CTO (community takeover)

The event in which a memecoin's community takes control of a token abandoned by its original creator. On pump.fun, a CTO executes as an on-chain transaction that reassigns the token's recorded creator, which makes takeovers detectable in real time. See what is a CTO.

Bonding curve

The pricing mechanism pump.fun tokens launch on: a formula that raises the price as more tokens are bought from the curve, with no traditional liquidity pool. When enough is bought, the token graduates to a regular decentralized exchange.

Graduation

The moment a pump.fun token completes its bonding curve and its liquidity moves to an automated market maker, where it trades like any other token.

Mint authority

The permission to create new units of a token. A revoked mint authority means the supply is fixed forever; an active one means the holder can print tokens and dilute everyone. Checking it is a basic safety test.

Freeze authority

The permission to freeze token accounts, preventing holders from selling. Revoked freeze authority is a prerequisite for a token being considered safe.

Contract address (CA)

The unique on-chain address identifying a token, on Solana this is the token's mint address. The only unambiguous way to refer to a coin, since names and tickers can be copied freely.

Market behavior

Smart money

Wallets with a demonstrated record of buying before prices rise. Because all transactions are public, such wallets can be identified statistically and tracked; several of them accumulating the same coin at once (confluence) is a classic informed-flow signal.

Rug pull (rug)

An exit scam in which insiders remove liquidity or dump their holdings, collapsing the price to near zero. The base rate of rugs is why safety checks and position sizing matter more in memecoins than anywhere else.

Exit liquidity

The buyers to whom insiders sell at the top. Arriving late to a run without an exit rule usually means becoming exit liquidity.

Give-back

The share of a run's peak gain surrendered before the position is closed. A pre-set give-back limit (for example 40% from peak) is a simple mechanical trailing exit. See when to sell a memecoin.

Momentum flip

The point where buy pressure inverts into sell pressure while volume remains high, often the earliest measurable sign that a run is ending, visible in order flow before it is visible in price.

Slippage

The difference between the price you expected and the price you actually got, caused by your own trade moving a thin market. In small memecoin pools, slippage plus fees can cost several percent per round trip, which any honest performance record must account for.

MEV / sandwich attack

Profit extracted by bots that see your pending trade and place orders around it, buying just before you and selling just after. A hidden tax on entries in fast markets.

Process and discipline

Signal

A structured, machine-generated observation that a tradable event occurred, a takeover detected, smart wallets accumulating, volume igniting. A signal is a measurement with a timestamp, not a recommendation.

Paper trading

Executing a strategy with simulated money at real market prices. The honest way to prove a rule works before risking funds, and the evidence base behind any credible published track record.

Expectancy

The average profit or loss per trade a strategy produces over many trades, after costs. The single most important number about any strategy, and meaningless without sample size.

Drawdown

The decline from a peak in account value to a later low. Max drawdown measures the worst such fall; it is the number that decides whether a strategy is survivable, since a 50% loss requires a 100% gain to recover.

Position sizing

Deciding how much to risk per trade. In lottery-like markets, sizing is the difference between a bad week and a blown account: many small independent bets beat one large one.

Exit Guard

Belphor's sell-side instrument: an automated watcher armed on every signal that measures wallet exits, momentum flips, and give-back from peak around the clock, and declares the run over when the data says so.