DexGrade

How to check if a crypto token is a scam (before you buy)

A simple 6-step check for any new token: can you sell it, who controls the contract, how much real liquidity there is, who holds it, and what the chart is hiding.

Why a chart is not enough

Many scam tokens have beautiful charts: the price only goes up because nobody can sell, or because the team is buying from itself. The real story is on the blockchain: in the contract, the pools and the wallets. These six checks take a minute with DexGrade, and they catch most scams.

The 6 checks

Paste the token address into DexGrade and look at each of these:

  1. Can you sell it? Look for a passed sell test and many different wallets that sold in the last 24 hours. A failed sell test, or only one wallet selling, is a honeypot warning.
  2. What can the owner still do? Minting new tokens, freezing wallets, blacklisting, pausing trades or changing the tax are all ways to take your money later. The safest tokens have these removed or the ownership renounced.
  3. What is the tax? Normal tokens have 0–5%. A sell tax of 20% or more is a red flag, and 50% or more is effectively a honeypot.
  4. Is the liquidity real, and can it be pulled? Check the dollar amount of real money in the pools and whether the pool tokens are locked or burned. Small or unlocked liquidity can disappear in one transaction.
  5. Who holds it? If the top 10 wallets own more than about half the supply, or many top wallets were funded by the same source (a bundle), a few people can crash the price.
  6. How is the developer behaving? A developer who still holds a big share, or has been selling, is a risk. Check the "What changed" history for permissions, tax changes or warnings.

Read the grade, then the reasons

DexGrade turns these checks into a grade from 0 to 100 and a verdict: Looks safe, Caution or Danger. Always read the reasons under it: one serious problem, like a failed sell test, matters more than a high score elsewhere.

Keep watching after you buy

A token can change after you buy: liquidity can be pulled or the tax raised. Tap Watch on the token page and DexGrade alerts you if the grade drops or liquidity falls sharply.