SafeMoon (SFM)

Overview

SafeMoon (SFM) is a cryptocurrency that began as a token designed to reward people for holding it. Launched in 2021, it became known for a transaction fee that sent some tokens to existing holders and set aside others for trading pools. Since then, SafeMoon has gone through a token upgrade, a company bankruptcy, and a move to Solana. Those changes matter because the SFM shown on a Solana token page has a different technical history from the original token on BNB Smart Chain. (justice.gov)

Today, SFM is best understood through both its history and its current form. Its early design helped make “reflections”—rewards distributed to holders—a familiar idea in crypto. The Solana token carries the SafeMoon name forward as an asset that people can hold, send, and exchange using Solana tools. (justice.gov)

History & Team

From launch to migration

SafeMoon first appeared in March 2021. Kyle Nagy created the project, while Braden John Karony became its chief executive and Thomas Smith served as chief technology officer. The project drew a large online community around its holding rewards and plans for a broader set of crypto products. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that SafeMoon had more than one million holders in the months after launch. (sec.gov)

In late 2021, the team introduced SafeMoon V2. The upgrade combined 1,000 original tokens into one V2 token. It also gave the upgraded asset the SFM ticker. That consolidation changed how balances were displayed, rather than giving each holder 1,000 times as much of the project. (gate.com)

SafeMoon US, LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on December 23, 2023. Bankruptcy proceedings led to the sale of project assets, including technology and social-media assets. The VGX Foundation later became involved in the project’s transition. In 2025, exchanges announced a move from earlier SFM tokens to a Solana token at a 1:1 exchange ratio. Gate and BitMart identified the Solana token by the same mint address: ELPrcU7qRV3DUz8AP6siTE7GkR3gkkBvGmgBRiLnC19Y. (cases.stretto.com)

Technology & How It Works

The original reflection model

SafeMoon’s first version ran on BNB Smart Chain. Its smart contract charged a 10% fee on transfers. The project described a split in which 5% would be shared among existing holders and 5% would support liquidity pools. A holder’s token balance could grow through these reflections without the holder making a separate claim. Rewards depended on transfers taking place and on the amount held; they were part of the token’s transfer system, rather than payment for validating blockchain transactions. (justice.gov)

A liquidity pool is a supply of two assets that supports swapping on a decentralized exchange. Setting tokens aside for a pool was meant to make exchanges between SFM and another asset easier. SafeMoon’s fee rules changed over time, so the original 10% split describes its early design, not every later version. (justice.gov)

The Solana token

The SFM identified in the 2025 migration uses Solana. On Solana, a token has a mint address that identifies it, while each holder has a token account for that mint. Solana’s token program handles basic actions such as sending and burning tokens. This structure differs from the earlier SafeMoon smart contracts on BNB Smart Chain. (gate.com)

The mint address is especially useful when reading about SafeMoon because the name has appeared across several versions and networks. It identifies the Solana SFM that exchanges named in their migration notices. Solana transactions also use SOL for network fees, even when the asset being sent is SFM. (gate.com)

Tokenomics & Utility

Tokenomics describes how a token’s supply and incentives work. SafeMoon offers an example of how an economic model can change as a project develops. The first model centered on a transfer fee, holder reflections, and funds intended for liquidity pools. V2 kept the SafeMoon name while consolidating units at 1,000 to one. The later Solana migration used a different ratio: one earlier SFM token for one new SFM token in the exchange programs announced by Gate and BitMart. (justice.gov)

These two ratios describe separate events. The V1-to-V2 consolidation changed the number of units a holder saw. The 2025 move identified a new token on another blockchain. Knowing which event a balance belongs to helps explain why an old SafeMoon balance and a Solana SFM balance may be described differently. (gate.com)

Earlier SafeMoon versions also used burning as part of their supply story. Burning removes tokens from use; on Solana, a burn instruction reduces both an account balance and the mint’s total supply. The Solana token’s basic utility is more direct: it can be held in a compatible wallet, transferred to another Solana account, or exchanged where a supported market exists. Older descriptions of automatic reflections refer to the earlier fee-based system. (solana.com)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Wallets, swapping, and community

SafeMoon’s earlier ecosystem included a wallet and a swap product. The wallet gave users a place to view holdings, while the swap product was built for exchanging crypto assets. Those products formed part of the company assets addressed during bankruptcy proceedings. The 2025 move to Solana placed SFM within another set of wallet and exchange tools. (cases.stretto.com)

On Solana, a straightforward use case is sending SFM between wallets. A holder can also connect a Solana wallet to a decentralized exchange and exchange SFM through a supported pool. Raydium has a swap page for the Solana SFM mint. These activities rely on the Solana network’s token accounts and transaction system. (solana.com)

Community participation remains part of SafeMoon’s story. Its early following helped turn the project into a widely discussed example of holding rewards and crypto communities. The current token preserves that recognizable name, while its everyday uses center on holding, transferring, and exchanging an asset on Solana. (justice.gov)

Advantages & Challenges

SafeMoon’s main educational strength is the clear link between its design and user behavior. The early fee model showed how a token could encourage holding by distributing part of each transfer to other holders. Its later moves show a different side of token design: balances can be consolidated, and a project can issue an asset on a new network while keeping its name and ticker. (justice.gov)

The project’s history also brings challenges. Multiple token versions make it harder to understand which features belong to which asset. The original system’s liquidity pools depended on people with control over them; U.S. prosecutors established that former executives retained access to pools they had described to holders as locked. The company’s bankruptcy and leadership changes further shaped the project before the Solana migration. These events are central to understanding SafeMoon as a project, alongside the token’s code. (justice.gov)

Where to Buy & Wallets

Solana SFM can be exchanged on Raydium using its Solana mint address, ELPrcU7qRV3DUz8AP6siTE7GkR3gkkBvGmgBRiLnC19Y. Raydium is a decentralized exchange, so a purchase there takes place through a connected Solana wallet and a token swap. SOL is used to pay the network transaction fee. (raydium.io)

Phantom can hold Solana SFM as a Solana token. Its Solana address can receive SOL and other tokens on that network. The mint address identifies SFM within Solana, while the wallet address identifies the person receiving it. Gate and BitMart documented support for the 2025 token migration; their announcements provide a record of which Solana mint replaced the earlier exchange-held asset. (help.phantom.com)

Regulatory & Compliance

SafeMoon has faced significant U.S. legal action. In November 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged SafeMoon companies and former leaders over an alleged fraudulent and unregistered offering. In a related criminal case, a federal jury convicted former chief executive Braden John Karony in May 2025. He was sentenced in February 2026 to 100 months in prison for conspiracies involving securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Thomas Smith pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy charges. These proceedings concerned conduct tied to the earlier SafeMoon project. (sec.gov)

SafeMoon’s halal or Shariah-compliance status has no established project-wide determination. Islamic finance assessments consider matters such as riba, or prohibited interest, and gharar, or excessive uncertainty in a transaction. SafeMoon’s earlier fee-based rewards and its later Solana token present different arrangements for such an assessment. A judgment about the token would depend on the version, the transaction, and the standards applied by a qualified Shariah authority. (aaoifi.com)

Future Outlook

SafeMoon’s next chapter rests on what people build around its Solana token and how the community uses it. Solana supplies the basic tools for transfers and exchange, while the SafeMoon name brings a project history that began with a very different reward model. Further wallet support or applications would add practical uses only as they are released and adopted. (solana.com)

The shift from reflections to a Solana-based asset makes SafeMoon a useful case study in changing crypto design. It shows that a ticker can remain familiar even as the network, token units, and organizations connected to a project change. (justice.gov)

Summary

SafeMoon began as a BNB Smart Chain token known for sharing transfer fees with holders. It later became SFM through a token consolidation and, after major company and legal changes, moved to a Solana token identified by a new mint address. Its place in crypto comes from both parts of that story: an influential early holding-reward model and a later move toward simpler use through Solana wallets and exchanges. (justice.gov)