How to Burn Scam and Spam Tokens on Solana
Every active Solana wallet collects them: tokens named after an airdrop you never entered, NFTs promising you have won something, and dust positions in coins you have never heard of. They are cheap to send and they arrive whether you want them or not.
The good news is that clearing them out is safe, permanent, and pays you a little SOL for the trouble.
How do you get rid of scam tokens on Solana?
Burn them. Connect to Sol Incinerator, switch to Pro Mode, select the spam, and sign. The assets are destroyed on-chain and you receive 0.002 SOL per token account closed. Solflare's own FAQ recommends this route for scam NFTs.
Is a spam token in your wallet actually dangerous?
It is worth being precise here, because the fear is usually pointed at the wrong thing.
An unsolicited token sitting in your wallet cannot execute on its own. It cannot run code, drain your balance, or sign on your behalf. Receiving one grants the sender no authority over anything else you hold.
The actual attack is social. Spam NFTs are designed as bait: the image, name, and description advertise a website. That site asks you to connect your wallet to "claim" something, then presents a transaction which — if you sign it — transfers your assets or grants a delegate authority over them. The NFT is a billboard, and the damage only happens if you follow it and sign.
One caveat worth knowing: a signature is not required for every movement, only for granting the authority in the first place. If you previously approved a delegate on a token account, that address can move those tokens afterwards without asking you again. That is exactly what a malicious "claim" transaction is usually setting up. How to revoke token permissions covers checking for and clearing them.
Never visit a URL advertised inside an unsolicited NFT, and never sign a transaction you did not initiate. If something appeared in your wallet unannounced and claims you have won a prize, the prize is the bait.
So the honest risk assessment: spam is not an emergency, but it is a persistent lure sitting inside the interface you use to manage real money. It is worth removing, and removing it happens to pay.
Why hiding is not enough
Both Phantom and Solflare let you hide assets from view, and that is a reasonable first response. Just be clear about what it does.
Hiding is a display setting local to your wallet. On-chain, nothing changes: the account still exists, still holds its rent-exempt deposit of about 0.00204 SOL, and still shows up to anyone inspecting your address on an explorer. Unhide it and the bait is right back.
Burning destroys the asset and closes the account. The spam is gone from the blockchain, and your deposit comes back.
Solflare's own FAQ puts the recommendation plainly. Answering how to delete scam NFTs, it says: "You can safely burn scam NFTs using sol-incinerator.com, or hide them from view in the Solflare app."
How much SOL do you get back?
More than most people expect, because spam accumulates in volume.
| What you clear | Return per item |
|---|---|
| Spam SPL token (burn + close account) | 0.002 SOL |
| Empty account left by an old spam token | 0.002 SOL |
| Standard spam NFT | ~0.01 SOL |
| Compressed spam NFT | 0 SOL |
The last row deserves a word. Most spam NFT airdrops are compressed, because cNFTs cost a fraction of a cent to mint in bulk — that economics is precisely why you receive so many. Compressed NFTs live in a merkle tree rather than in accounts, so they hold no rent and burning one returns nothing. Do it anyway for the security benefit, but do not expect a payout. Details here.
Spam fungible tokens are a different story: they sit in ordinary token accounts and genuinely do hold reclaimable rent.
Step-by-step
- Open Sol Incinerator and connect your wallet. The scan is read-only and needs no signature, so you can see everything before committing to anything.
- Close your empty accounts first, in Fun Mode. This is the default, it destroys nothing, and old spam you already got rid of has often left vacant accounts behind that still hold rent.
- Switch to Pro Mode to burn the spam that still has a balance.
- Work through the list carefully. Assets above a USD threshold are hidden by default so a select-all cannot catch something real, but you are the last line of defense here.
- Sign. Burns are batched, so a wallet full of junk is a handful of signatures rather than hundreds.
Take a moment on anything you do not recognize before burning it. An unfamiliar token is not automatically spam — it might be an LP position, a staking receipt, or a governance token from a protocol you used once. If you are unsure, look it up rather than guessing. Burns cannot be undone.
What if a scam token will not burn?
Some scam tokens are deliberately built to resist removal — most often by using a freeze authority to keep your token account frozen, which causes a burn instruction to fail. This is a known nuisance tactic designed to keep the token visible in as many wallets as possible.
Where the token uses standard Token or Token-2022 structures, Sol Incinerator handles the awkward cases as part of its burn flow. Where a token is genuinely frozen by an authority you do not control and cannot be burned by anyone, hiding it in your wallet is the remaining option — but that is rare, and it is worth attempting the burn first rather than assuming.
Can you stop receiving spam?
Not really, and it is worth setting expectations. Anyone can send anything to any Solana address, and there is no protocol-level way to refuse incoming transfers. A wallet with visible on-chain activity will keep being targeted.
What you can do is make it harmless: keep the cleanup routine, never follow links from assets you did not ask for, and consider using a separate wallet for mints and airdrop claims so the noise stays away from your main holdings.
Clear it out
Spam removal is one of the few wallet chores that pays you to do it. The empty-account pass alone is risk-free and usually the larger number.
Sol Incinerator
Connect your wallet and clear out spam tokens and scam NFTs — and get the locked SOL back.
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get rid of scam tokens on Solana?
Burn them. Connect your wallet to Sol Incinerator, switch to Pro Mode, select the spam tokens and NFTs you want gone, and sign. The assets are destroyed permanently on-chain and you receive about 0.002 SOL back for each token account closed, so the cleanup pays for itself.
Is it safe to burn a scam token?
Yes. Burning calls the standard SPL Token burn instruction on an asset your wallet already holds, and it cannot execute code belonging to the scam token. What is genuinely unsafe is interacting with the token's website or approving a transaction one of its links asks for.
Can a spam NFT in my wallet steal my funds?
Not by sitting there. Spam NFTs are bait, using their image and name to advertise a site that asks you to connect and sign a malicious transaction. The danger is in following the link and signing, never in the NFT existing in your wallet.
Should I hide spam tokens instead of burning them?
Hiding only changes what your wallet displays. The account still exists on-chain, still holds its rent deposit of about 0.00204 SOL, and the phishing bait is still there if you ever unhide it. Burning removes the asset and returns the SOL.
Why do I keep receiving spam tokens on Solana?
Airdropping to public wallet addresses is extremely cheap on Solana, especially with compressed NFTs, which cost a fraction of a cent to mint in bulk. Any wallet with visible on-chain activity gets targeted, and there is no way to prevent incoming transfers.