Rug Pulls and Red Flags: How to Vet a Crypto Presale Like a Pro

The modern crypto industry has an extremely low entry threshold, but such accessibility for investors has also raised the risks of losing their money. In particular, those who want to join projects at the presale stage are exposed to them the most – here, we are talking about scam projects, also called rug pulls. In this article, we will explain how to vet a crypto presale before you decide to buy tokens and tell you about the NEX coin presale that you can trust.

Key Signs of an Unreliable Presale: from the Team to Tokenomics

The first thing you should pay attention to when analyzing any project is the key team members and their plan for using the token. In particular, at least the LinkedIn profile of the project CEO should be open. In addition, this profile has to include relevant experience (that is, the skills and already implemented projects of those whose stack intersects with the current one). Conversely, if the team is completely anonymous, this is a reason to treat the presale with caution.

Now, a few words about the whitepaper – it should describe the technical aspects of the project and have an economic justification for them. At the same time, biased formulations like “we are the future of decentralization” or “AI changes everything” without architectural descriptions are a potential red flag.

Finally, let’s talk about tokenomics, namely that the project should have a clear and fair token distribution plan (it must indicate what share goes to development, the team, the community, and liquidity). If the project does not have vesting, 40% or more goes to the team, and the tokens themselves are not blocked, the scenario of buying them will most likely be unprofitable.

How to Spot Fake Audits, Bots, and Fake Partnerships

Credibility in the crypto industry is easy to fake. For example, a team can demonstrate a pseudo-audit on their website, when the “Security Audit” section simply displays the logo of a well-known company, but there is no link to the report, or its file does not open. Moreover, this file must have code repositories and vulnerability fixes.

Next, you will need to check the activity on social networks: if a community with 100K subscribers can “boast” of no more than a few dozen messages, you can safely say that the vast majority of subscribers are bots.

The final aspect to verify is partnerships. The fact is that many projects publicly declare their cooperation with famous brands or funds without having any proof, so you will have to check them on the official websites of partner companies.

Technical and Legal Signs of a Reliable Crypto Project

A reliable project must provide the following at the presale stage:

• Access to the testnet or dApp prototype;
• Transparent GitHub repositories with regular commits;
• Licenses, Terms of Use, and privacy policy, especially if the project uses AI for data processing;
• KYC (for example, through CredShields or Certik KYC);
• A roadmap linked to public events (releases, hackathons, partnerships, etc.).

Useful Tools for Checking Presales

Fortunately, today there are a number of crypto due diligence tools that allow even a beginner to analyze the reliability of a project. It is better to use them together to ensure maximum transparency when assessing red flags in ICO projects:

• Etherscan and BscScan – for analyzing the activity of contracts, holders, and tokens;
• Dextools and GeckoTerminal – for assessing liquidity and viewing the trading chart;
• TokenSniffer – for analyzing the token code and assessing rug pull warning signs;
• RugDoc.io – for categorizing risks and ratings of projects.

Analysts’ Opinion: Cold Assessment Is More Important Than FOMO

“As practice shows, in presales, it is often not those who entered faster who win, but those who checked the project more deeply. Hype is a marketing tool, not a substitute for independent analysis,” says a DeFi Digest analyst who anonymously collaborates with several investment funds. 

Presale Analysis Checklist

Here is a short crypto presale checklist that you should follow:

• Open profiles of the team (or at least its head);
• Whitepaper with an in-depth technical description of the platform and an indication of the tech stack;
• Transparent tokenomics with vesting;
• Verified audit;
• Verified partnerships;
• Active community;
• Availability of a ready-made MVP;
• Regular AMAs and updates;
• Mentions on analytical platforms;
• Clear legal documentation.

In particular, the Nexchain project with NEX tokens satisfies all these criteria, while many of its competitors still rely on FOMO as their primary tool for attracting investors. Nexchain, with its open architecture, hybrid consensus, and AI infrastructure, clearly demonstrates what a fair, technologically-backed presale of NEX tokens can look like. That’s why the word “presale” in this case means safe crypto investing.