It shows up on every checklist, including ours — rarely explained. Here's what's actually being locked.
Most new tokens trade on a decentralized exchange through a "liquidity pool" — a pair of the new token and something stable (ETH, USDC, BNB) that someone deposited so people have something to trade against. Whoever created that pool holds a claim on it, and technically, they can withdraw their share at any time — pulling out the stable side and leaving the token side worthless. That's the literal mechanism behind a "rug pull": it's not some hack, it's just the pool creator using a withdrawal button they always had.
"Liquidity locked" means the team sent that claim to a smart contract that holds it for a fixed period and won't release it early, no matter who asks — including them. Services like Team Finance or Unicrypt do exactly this: you can look up the token's liquidity pool address on either site and see whether it's locked, for how long, and who locked it.
Why this matters to you specifically: an unlocked pool doesn't mean the team will definitely rug — plenty of small, honest projects just haven't gotten around to locking, or lock later. But it does mean the mechanical ability to pull the rug exists right now, with nothing stopping it. A locked pool with a real, checkable expiry date removes that specific risk for as long as the lock lasts — check what happens when it expires, too, since a lock isn't the same as a promise.
One thing to watch for: a short lock (a few days) advertised loudly as "liquidity locked!" without mentioning the duration. Technically true, practically meaningless.
Want someone to check this along with everything else for a specific project?