Aave (AAVE) Rug Check

About Aave (AAVE)

Aave (AAVE) is one of Ethereum's largest lending-protocol tokens. Rug-check AAVE to confirm the canonical governance contract, inspect upgrade authority, and distinguish from the periodic fake-AAVE impersonation tokens that appear on DEXs.

How to rug-check AAVE on Ethereum

Step 1: Copy the canonical AAVE contract address from a trusted source (the project's official website, CoinGecko, or CoinMarketCap). For Aave, the canonical Ethereum address is 0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9. Step 2: Paste the address into Sharpe's Rug Check — or click "Run live rug check" above to pre-fill the scanner. Step 3: Review the 0-100 risk score and the flagged patterns. A legitimate, mature token typically scores above 80; scores below 40 warrant caution. Step 4: Cross-reference with the chain-specific rug patterns on the Ethereum overview — proxy upgrades, hidden fees, authority risks all differ by chain.

Common Ethereum rug patterns to watch for

Ethereum mainnet has a decade of smart contract history and by far the widest variety of rug patterns — hidden transfer fees (tax tokens), honeypots that silently block selling, proxy-upgradeable contracts where devs can replace logic post-audit, dangerous admin functions like blacklist, pause, setFees, and unrestricted mint. Ethereum's high gas has pushed most new meme launches to L2s, but established ERC-20 tokens still hold the largest dollar-value attack surface: a single upgrade on a token with a billion-dollar market cap can drain more value than any Base or Solana launch. Key Ethereum-specific risks: (1) proxy contracts with retained upgrade authority — the ERC-1967 and EIP-1822 patterns let devs swap implementation logic after an audit, introducing fees, blacklists, or mint functions that didn't exist when holders entered. (2) Hidden transfer taxes in the 50-99% range that route value to dev wallets on sell — these are often dynamic, triggered only above a certain volume threshold so small test trades pass. (3) Blacklist / blocklist functions letting devs freeze specific buyer wallets to prevent dumps before their own exits. (4) Pause functions that halt all trading at the admin's discretion. (5) Unlimited mint authority or proxy-introduced mint logic. Sharpe's Rug Check analyzes ERC-20 tokens with a layered security scan — simulated buy/sell through Uniswap V2 and V3 to surface honeypot and tax patterns, proxy-detection against EIP-1967 storage slots, and Etherscan verified-source lookups. Paste any Ethereum contract address to get a 0-100 risk score.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the canonical AAVE contract address on Ethereum?

The canonical Aave (AAVE) contract on Ethereum is 0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9. Any token on Ethereum claiming to be AAVE with a different contract address is almost certainly an impersonation rug. Always paste the address into Sharpe's Rug Check to verify authority state and liquidity lock.

Is AAVE a honeypot?

Sharpe's Rug Check runs a simulated sell transaction against the AAVE contract to detect honeypot behavior. Tokens that block selling are flagged pre-trade. Paste the AAVE address into the scanner to get a live honeypot check plus a full 0-100 risk score.

How do I avoid fake AAVE tokens on Ethereum?

Always copy the contract address from the project's official website or a trusted aggregator (CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, the project's pinned social post) — never from a random DEX pool. On Ethereum, scammers deploy lookalike tokens with identical names and logos; the canonical AAVE address is 0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9.

What rug patterns apply to AAVE on Ethereum?

AAVE inherits the chain-level rug risk profile of Ethereum. The dominant patterns on this chain: Proxy-upgradeable contracts; Hidden transfer fees (buy/sell tax); Honeypot (sells blocked). Sharpe's Rug Check evaluates the token against all 30+ patterns and surfaces anything flagged on the specific contract.