How to revoke update authority on Solana

Here is how to revoke update authority on Solana: open a no-code revoke tool, connect your wallet, paste your token's mint address, and confirm. It costs 0.05 SOL and locks your token's metadata for good.

Update authority is not like the other two. Mint authority controls the supply, and freeze authority controls holders' wallets.

Update authority controls your token's identity: its name, symbol, logo, and description. Revoking it means no one can ever change what your token looks like.

What update authority controls: your token's identity

Every Solana token has metadata: the name, symbol, image, and description that wallets and explorers display. The update authority is the one wallet allowed to change that metadata. While it is live, the token's identity can be rewritten at any time.

On a Token-2022 token, which is what Tokenry mints, the metadata lives on the mint itself and has its own update authority, separate from the mint and freeze authorities. Revoking it sets that authority to none, and the metadata becomes permanent.

How to revoke update authority on Solana

There are two moments to do it, like the other authorities.

If you are minting the token now, turn on the revoke update toggle in the Solana token creator. It happens at launch, at no extra cost.

If your token is already live, use the Revoke Update Authority tool. Connect the wallet that holds the authority, paste your token's mint address, and confirm.

It costs 0.05 SOL, and only the current authority wallet can do it. Once confirmed, the metadata is immutable forever.

The scam a live update authority allows

This is the risk that makes update authority worth understanding. While the metadata is mutable, a creator can launch a clean-looking token, wait for buyers, then rewrite it.

The playbook is simple: change the name to impersonate a real project, swap the logo for a trusted brand's, or drop a phishing link into the description. The token you bought yesterday can be pointing at a fake airdrop site today.

That is a metadata bait-and-switch, and a live update authority is what makes it possible.

This is why token scanners like DexScreener and Birdeye flag mutable metadata as a warning sign, and why revoking it is a trust signal.

It is a different risk from mint authority, which is about supply, or freeze authority, which is about your wallet. Update authority is about who your token pretends to be.

Should you revoke update authority, or keep it?

This is the one authority with a real trade-off. You almost always revoke mint and freeze. Update authority is a genuine decision.

Revoke it, which is right for most tokens: once your name, logo, and description are final, revoking makes them immutable and proves to buyers that the identity can never change. For a launched community or meme token, that is usually the call.

Keep it, for now, in a few cases: revoking is permanent. Once it is gone, you can never fix a typo in the name, upgrade to a better logo, or add a new website or socials to the description.

If you are still pre-launch, mid-rebrand, or you store your links in the metadata and update them, hold the authority a little longer.

The bottom line: revoke update authority once your token's identity is locked in. Keep it only if you have a concrete reason to change the metadata soon, and say so publicly, because until you revoke it, buyers have to trust you not to rewrite the token.

Metaplex or Token-2022: where your metadata lives

Where the update authority sits depends on how the token stores its metadata, and there are two systems.

Classic SPL tokens use Metaplex, which attaches a separate metadata account to the mint, each with its own update authority. Token-2022 tokens can store the metadata on the mint itself through the metadata extension, again with its own update authority.

Tokenry mints Token-2022 tokens, so the update authority you revoke is the Token-2022 one.

Either way, revoking sets the update authority to none, and the result is the same: the metadata can never change again.

How to check a token's update authority

Open the token's mint address on a Solana explorer like Solscan and look at its metadata. If an update authority address is shown, the metadata is still mutable and can be changed. If the update authority is empty or shows as none, the metadata is locked.

Do this before you buy, especially on a token that looks like a known project. Mutable metadata on what claims to be an established name is the tell that it could be an impersonator.

Update authority vs mint and freeze authority

A Solana token has three authorities, and each protects against a different thing.

For a standard community token, revoke all three. See what revoking mint authority means and how to revoke freeze authority for the other two.

Educational content, not financial advice. Tokenry is a self-serve, non-custodial tool, not a financial advisor. Crypto is volatile and risky - always do your own research before creating or investing in any token.