A complete on-chain checklist for evaluating any token before you invest. Seven checks that separate safe projects from scams.
Most crypto losses are preventable. Scam tokens have predictable on-chain fingerprints — if you know what to look for. This guide gives you a systematic checklist to run on any token before committing funds.
Always evaluate the contract address, not the project’s website or social presence. Scammers can fake anything except on-chain data.
Simulate a buy and sell transaction before spending real money. A honeypot will allow buys but block or tax sells at 99-100%. Use DexScanr to run this simulation automatically. Look for:
Unlocked liquidity is the top rug pull risk. Check whether the LP tokens are locked and for how long. A credible project locks liquidity for at least 6 months, ideally 1-2 years. If liquidity is unlocked or the lock expires soon, treat it as high risk.
If the owner wallet still has control of the contract, they can change taxes, blacklist wallets, or pause trading at any time. A safe token has renounced ownership — the owner address is the zero address (0x000...000). Verify this on Etherscan or your chain explorer.
High taxes destroy your returns even if the token is not a scam. Check the actual on-chain tax rates, not what the project claims. DexScanr simulates real transactions to measure exact tax rates. A combined buy+sell tax above 10% is a red flag for most investors.
The wallet that deployed the contract often reveals the team’s history. Check if the deployer has previously deployed tokens that went to zero, were abandoned, or show patterns of repeated launches. Serial scammers reuse wallets across multiple rug pulls.
If the deployer wallet has 5+ dead token contracts in its history, the current project is extremely high risk regardless of marketing.
A healthy token has distributed ownership. If the top 10 wallets hold more than 50% of supply, a coordinated dump can destroy the price instantly. Watch for:
Legitimate projects verify their contract source code on Etherscan (or equivalent chain explorer). This allows anyone to audit the code. An unverified contract is hiding something — it is an automatic red flag.
DexScanr performs this entire checklist in seconds. Paste any contract address and get a full risk report.