Orca Crypto
Web3 term

Soulbound token

A token that cannot be transferred, used to represent something earned rather than bought.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

A token that cannot be transferred, used to represent something earned rather than bought.

A soulbound token is permanently bound to one address. Because it cannot be sold, it can represent things that should not be purchasable: a completed course, a verified membership, a reputation score, a contribution record.

The tradeoff is that permanence is unforgiving. Lose access to the wallet and the credential is gone, which is why decentralized identity work usually pairs these with recovery mechanisms.

In practice

A conference could issue attendance tokens that prove you were there and cannot be traded to someone who was not.

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