The Red Flags Checklist
What can stop a sale, empty a wallet or break a peg, and how to check each one before you buy.
Each section below is one flag: what it is, in a sentence, and how to check for it, with the page on this site that checks it where one does. Where we do not check something, the sheet says so and names where you can.
There is no score at the end, on purpose. One flag can be enough on its own, and a page of clean boxes still says nothing about whether a price will go up. A flag you could not check is not a flag you cleared. Write "could not check" beside it rather than ticking it.
1. Contract powers: mint, freeze, pause, upgrade, admin keys
A token is a program, and its code can give one party powers over every holder: to create more of it, to freeze an address, to stop every transfer, or to replace the code behind the same address through a proxy. Whoever holds the admin key can use those powers without asking anyone.
- Open the coin's page and read its CM Profile and the "what it can do" rows. PowerMap records who holds which of nine powers (freeze, pause, mint, redeem, custody, govern, validate, pay out, bridge) and where we read it.
- Where a power shows as not established, I have treated it as unknown, not as absent.
- For a contract token, Sellability flags a contract whose transfers can be paused, or whose owner can blacklist addresses.
- On a block explorer: is the contract a proxy, is the admin one address or a multisig, and do changes wait behind a timelock?
2. Honeypots and token taxes
A honeypot lets people buy but blocks or restricts selling, so the chart can look healthy precisely because holders cannot get out. A token tax takes a share of every sale inside the contract, on top of what the market costs.
- The contract address matches the one the project itself publishes.
- Sellability has read the contract: it names a sell tax and its rate, and flags a contract reported as unsellable.
- If honeypot status could not be determined, I have treated any exit figure as unproven.
- I have looked for evidence of ordinary holders selling, not just buying. Being able to buy proves nothing about being able to sell.
3. Liquidity traps
A coin with a price can still be hard to sell. Thin liquidity means a sale moves the price a long way; liquidity held in one pool can be withdrawn by whoever controls it, which is the common form of a rug pull. A claim that liquidity is "locked" is only a claim until the lock can be seen on chain.
- Sellability at my own size: what a sale would fetch, how much of the liquidity sits in a single pool, and my position as a share of it.
- The coin page, or the token's exit page under /exit, shows the cost of selling measured day by day, not once.
- If the liquidity is said to be locked: I have seen the lock on chain, how much it covers and when it ends.
4. Holder concentration
When a few wallets hold much of a coin's supply, one large sale can move the price sharply. See whale.
- On a block explorer, the share of supply held by the top wallets. We do not measure this one.
- Which of those wallets are exchanges, contracts or the team, rather than single holders.
5. Unlocks
A token unlock releases tokens held back for the team, early backers or a treasury, on a known date, and the circulating supply grows when it does.
- The project's own disclosures: how much of the supply is still vesting or locked, and when it unlocks.
- The next unlock compared with the current circulating supply.
- The crypto calendar for dated unlocks. Each entry there is checked against two sources, and many unlocks are not on it.
6. Fake audits and partnerships
An audit reviews one version of the code at one time and does not catch every bug; code changed afterwards, or admin keys that can change it, sit outside what it covered. A verified contract only means the published source matches what is deployed, not that anyone reviewed it.
- The audit report is on the auditor's own site, not only on the project's.
- Its date, the version of the code it reviewed, and whether the issues it listed were fixed.
- A named partner confirms the partnership on its own site or channel. A logo on the project's page is not that.
7. Drainers and malicious approvals
A wallet drainer does not need your seed phrase: one signature granting spending permission can be enough. An approval stays active until you revoke it, and a permit signature costs no gas and still hands over an allowance.
- I reached the site myself, not through an advert, a direct message or a token that appeared in my wallet uninvited.
- Before signing, my wallet shows the action in plain words: the contract, the spender, the amount. If it shows only hex, I reject it. See blind signing.
- Approvals I no longer use are revoked. A revoke stops future withdrawals; it cannot bring back what was taken.
- Nobody has asked for my seed phrase. Anyone who does is running the scam.
8. Bridged and wrapped tokens
A token that came across a bridge, or a wrapped token, is worth the original only while it can be redeemed. If the bridge is hacked, the copy in your wallet can lose its backing without ever leaving it. Copies can share a name, so the contract address is what identifies one.
- Which bridge or issuer created the copy I hold. PowerMap records the party that issues a coin's copy on another chain, under the bridge power, where we have sourced it.
- The contract address of the copy, checked against the issuer's own list.
- How many signers control the bridge, and whether its upgrades wait behind a timelock. See bridge hack.
9. Stablecoin depeg
A depeg is a stablecoin trading noticeably away from its target, usually below it. In one, selling on a market locks in the lower price, while redeeming at full value may be open only to the issuer's direct customers, or paused.
- How the coin can be redeemed, by whom, and at what minimum. PowerMap records who decides redemption and who holds the backing, under the redeem and custody powers, where we have sourced it.
- What backs it. See stablecoin reserves.
- Whether one party can freeze it. Search answers "which stablecoins can be frozen" from the same record.
What this sheet cannot tell you
Whether the coin is a good purchase, or what its price will do. A coin can clear every section above and still fall, and one that fails a section can still rise for a while. This sheet only tells you what you are exposed to and whether you could see it.
For a word on this sheet that is not explained here, the concept library has it with its sources. This sheet is educational and is not financial advice. See the full disclaimer.
Educational content, not financial advice. This worksheet structures a decision; it does not make one, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy anything. We are not a broker, exchange, custodian or adviser, and we never take custody of your assets. We will never ask for a seed phrase or private key. See the full disclaimer.