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IntermediateLesson 7 of 7 · 4 min read

Your safety checklist

One routine to run before every buy, while you hold, and for your wallet, plus what to do if something goes wrong.

On this page
  1. Before you buy a coin
  2. While you hold
  3. Your wallet habits
  4. If something goes wrong
  5. Quiz

You do not need to remember every scam in this track. You need a short routine you run every time, even when you are in a hurry. Especially then: rushing you is exactly what scammers count on.

Before you buy a coin

  1. Get the right address. Copy the contract address from a source you trust, never from a reply or a DM.
  2. Check the switches. Mint authority and freeze authority should be revoked. If the details can still be changed, know why.
  3. Check the pool. A pump.fun coin that graduated from the curve has its LP burned by the launchpad. A pool someone opened by hand is different, even on PumpSwap, and so are other launchpads: find out who holds the LP tokens and whether they are burned or locked.
  4. Check who holds it. Look at the top holders, the dev wallet, bundled wallets and snipers. Add up linked wallets instead of judging them one by one.
  5. Check the volume. Compare volume with the number of unique traders and holders. Big volume from few wallets is a bot.
  6. Check the dev. What happened to the other coins this wallet launched? A dev with ten dead coins will probably make an eleventh.
  7. Check the call. If a KOL sent you here, look at when they bought and whether they sold.
  8. Size it to lose. Only put in what you could lose completely without it hurting your life. Most memecoins go to zero.
Example

Running the checklist on a made-up coin

A friend sends you MOONCAT, up 400% today with $1.2 million of volume. You give it three minutes.

  1. Step 1: Address: you copy it from the coin's page on the launchpad, not from your friend's screenshot.
  2. Step 2: Switches: mint and freeze are revoked. It graduated and the LP is burned. So far so good.
  3. Step 3: Holders: the top 10 looks spread out, but the bubble map shows 14 wallets, funded from one source and buying in the launch block, holding 38% between them.
  4. Step 4: Volume: $1.2 million, but only 160 unique wallets traded, and 9 of them made most of the trades.
  5. Step 5: Dev: the creator's wallet launched 23 coins this month. All but one are below a $10,000 market cap.
  6. Step 6: Verdict: the switches were clean and it still fails three checks. You skip it.

While you hold

  • Watch the dev and bundle wallets, not just the chart. Many terminals let you track a wallet and see its trades as they happen.
  • Decide before you buy when you would sell. A rug does not wait for you to make up your mind.
  • When the posts say 'we are building' and the wallets say selling, believe the wallets.

Your wallet habits

  • Never share your seed phrase or private key, with anyone, for any reason. No real company or bot needs it.
  • Keep a separate wallet for memecoins and keep savings somewhere else, ideally on a hardware wallet.
  • Use a burner wallet with a small balance when you try a new site or claim anything.
  • Never copy addresses from your history. Use your address book.
  • Read every signature request. If your wallet shows a warning, stop.
  • Do not click links in DMs, ads or surprise NFTs. Bookmark the sites you use.
  • Download wallets and apps only from their official websites.

If something goes wrong

  1. Stop. Do not sign anything else, and disconnect from the site.
  2. Make a brand new wallet with a new seed phrase and move whatever is left into it.
  3. If your seed phrase may have leaked, treat the old wallet as burned for good, whatever else you fix.
  4. Report the theft to the platform involved, and to the police if the amount is large. Ignore anyone who offers to recover it for a fee.

Check what you learned

0 of 4 answered

  1. Question 1A coin passes the switch checks: mint and freeze revoked, LP burned. What does that tell you?
  2. Question 2In the MOONCAT example, which finding was the clearest sign of a hidden cabal?
  3. Question 3Your wallet was drained through a bad signature. What do you do with whatever is left?
  4. Question 4TrickyHow much should you put into a single memecoin?

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This guide is for learning. It is not financial advice. Most memecoins go to zero and most people who trade them lose money. Only ever trade what you can afford to lose.