A 5-Minute Pre-Trade Check Checklist for New Coins

A new coin has no history to verify. So we look at its structure — following the order below, five minutes is enough to filter out most major scam patterns.

Step 0 — Start with the contract address (30 sec)

A coin's identity is its contract address, not its name. Anyone can create a token with the same name. Don't trust only the ticker in a promo post; copy the address from the project's official channel. More on this in how to spot impersonation coins.

Step 1 — Run the check (1 min)

Paste the address into the scam check and it verifies the items in steps 2–4 below all at once. Read the results screen in the following order.

Step 2 — Are there decisive facts (hard signals)? (30 sec)

Items such as honeypot (cannot sell), unlimited minting, the owner's power to change balances, and self-destruct code are not circumstantial — they are reproducible facts in the code. If even one is switched on, that alone means the highest risk grade — you don't even need to look at anything else.

Step 3 — Structural risk (1 min)

• Whether the LP is locked — unlocked liquidity can be withdrawn at any time (rug-pull structure).
• Whether ownership is renounced — if the owner is still alive, the powers to change tax rates, halt trading, and blacklist may be alive too.
• Holder concentration — if a few top wallets monopolize the supply, it's a structure that collapses in a single dump.
• Buy/sell taxes — if the rate is high or "mutable," it can become a trap later even if it's normal now.

Step 4 — Read the observation coverage (30 sec)

The observation coverage next to the score is "how many indicators were actually verified." If the score is low but coverage is low, that is not "safe" — it is "not yet known." Mistaking absence of data for safety is the most common misreading.

Step 5 — Make time your ally (1 min)

• In the observation-history graph on the detail page, check whether liquidity is stable and whether there is a cliff pattern.
• If it's a token you'll keep watching, register it in the Watchtower — you'll get a free push alert if a honeypot conversion, an LP-lock release, or a sudden liquidity drop is observed. Because many scams "start normal and turn later," continuous observation beats a one-time check.

Summary card

• Check the address → check → hard signals → LP / ownership / holders / taxes → coverage → observation history.
• One good signal (e.g. an LP lock) does not exempt the rest.
• "Unconfirmed = risk unknown," not "safe."