After getting rugged (twice), I’ve started developing my own personal checklist to spot red flags in new altcoin projects. Here are a few I now take seriously:
Team not doxxed: If there’s no face, it’s a risk.
No GitHub activity: A “project” with no code is a meme, not a coin.
90%+ tokens held by insiders or devs: Obvious exit trap.
Whitepaper is vague or just buzzwords.
No clear revenue model: If it doesn’t generate value, it won’t last.
Just wanted to throw this out there for discussion: What are some of your “dealbreaker” red flags when it comes to altcoins?
Good checklist, you’ve already nailed some of the biggest ones. A few more I usually watch out for:
• Overpromised partnerships → if a project keeps dropping names like “we’re working with Google/Microsoft” but there’s no proof, huge red flag.
• Liquidity locked? If the team controls the liquidity pool and it’s not locked, that’s an easy rug setup.
• Anonymous devs + aggressive marketing → that combo is almost always bad news.
• No real use case → if the only “utility” is pumping the token, it won’t survive a bear market.
• Copy-paste contracts → a lot of rug projects literally just fork code and don’t change anything except the name.
At the end of the day, if the tokenomics look like a trap and the community is just hype with no depth, I’d rather stay out. Too many “next big things” end up being the next rug.