Do Your Own Research Checklist

Here are things that I generally look at when interested in purchasing a token. This applies more to tokens than purchasing a blockchains. Research is even more important when you are in a bear market and you cant just throw a dart and expect to hit a crypto that will succeed.

Does the coin have a use? I don’t invest in coins without a use

Is the coin being used for its use? There are many coins that have a use that aren’t used. I think a coin that is actually used will be more likely to stay around.

What chain is the coin on? Do I think the chain will succeed? If it is multichain are they actually getting users from each chain or just hoping around hoping to get a user base?

Are there other coins with the same symbol? This is more common on some exchanges than others.

Does the coin have liquidity? Use a site like bogged.finance to check for liquidity, there are other good sites depending on the chain. The amount of liquidity I want depends on the chain and how new the coin is.

Do the staking returns and ‘promos’ make sense? I don’t like exchange promos. I don’t like insane interest rates. I look at the marketing budget if these things are high and try to see how many extra coins will be distributed and when it will run out at the current rate.

What percentage of the coins are distributed? If there is a low percentage of coins distributed this is a red flag (not 100% a scam, but higher chance). If I cannot find this on my first resource, I search until I find it.

What are the max number of coins? (I then calculate what the market cap would be at $0.01/$0.10/$1.00 and see if that is a reasonable market cap for the coin).

Are the founders and team doxxed? (Are they really doxxed and do I think that the team members makes sense. If they list 1-3 social media people and they have a minimal social media presence this is a red flag.

Social Media How good is the social media? How many sources are they on? Is it pump and dump style (bad) or more established company style? Do they focus on gaining money with their coin (bad) or the actual product?

Crypto Events Calendar I try to see if the coin is on an event calendar like CoinsCalendar or CoinMarketCal. This is more overall information, but some red flags can be found.

Company Legal Structure This is a little more detailed, but I want to make sure that the crypto is not an abroad shell company. I want to make sure that they have formed a company and it is registered.

Smart Contract Code I check the code with code checking websites. I want to make sure it is not a copy paste.

White Paper I read the white paper, the whole damn thing. So many white papers think that you will skip the middle and the junk they include is amazing.

Token Distribution I want to make sure that the token distribution is clear and described well.

How many coins do the founders and whales have? I prefer a more even distribution of coins.

There are a ton of other things to include in this list, but these are the basics.