How do you check a DEX token before you buy it?
Check five things: that you have the real contract address, that you can actually sell, who can still mint, freeze or change the token, whether the pool’s liquidity is locked or burned, and how much of the supply a few wallets hold. Each guide below shows where to look, on EVM networks and on Solana.
Last reviewed: 6 November 2026
These guides and the DegenPass trust score are measurements, not investment advice: no check can prove a token is honest, and none can predict its price.
Why check a token yourself?
On a decentralised exchange anyone can launch a token in minutes, with any name and any contract rules, and there is no listing review standing between a new token and a buyer. Most of the ways a token can trap buyers leave traces on-chain, and anyone can read them for free in a browser, without connecting a wallet.
The guides use public data sources: block explorers such as Etherscan, BscScan, Basescan and Solscan, market data from DexScreener and GeckoTerminal, and contract checks from GoPlus and RugCheck. Each guide gives the steps for EVM networks and for Solana where they differ.
How do you check if a token is a rug pull before you buy?
The overview guide. A rug pull is when the people behind a token take the value out and leave buyers with something they cannot sell. This guide walks through the six checks that catch most of them — address, liquidity, mint and owner powers, holders, the sell side and the creator’s history — lists the red flags that should stop you, and explains what happens to your tokens after the liquidity is pulled.
Read the guide: Rug pull check
How do you check if a token is a honeypot?
A honeypot lets you buy but not sell, or takes almost everything as a sell tax. This guide explains the switches a contract uses to trap sellers — blacklists, pause switches, sell taxes and transaction limits, plus freeze authority and Token-2022 extensions on Solana. It then gives a step-by-step check, from a buy-and-sell simulation to a small real sell at the size you plan to trade.
Read the guide: Honeypot check
What are mint authority, freeze authority and owner powers, and how do you check them?
Who can still change the token after you buy it? This guide explains mint, freeze and update authority on Solana, the Token-2022 extensions that add powers such as a permanent delegate or a transfer fee, and the owner functions on EVM contracts. It covers why renounced ownership does not help when an upgradeable proxy can swap the code, and shows where to read all of it on Solscan and Etherscan.
Read the guide: Mint and owner powers
How do you check if a token’s liquidity is locked?
The money in a token’s pool is what pays you when you sell. This guide shows how to find the real pool, see who holds its LP tokens, tell locked from burned, read the unlock date and who can withdraw after it, and handle Solana pools that have no LP token at all. It also explains what a lock does not protect against, and why a project’s own “locked” badge is a claim to verify.
Read the guide: Liquidity lock check
How do you verify a token’s real contract address and spot fake copies?
Every other check is wasted on the wrong token. This guide shows how to take a contract address from two official sources, confirm it on a block explorer, and tell the original from same-ticker copies and company-name look-alikes by the age of its pair, the depth of its pool and its holder count — plus the warning signs that you are looking at a copy.
Read the guide: Verify a contract address
A quick order to run the checks in
Verify the contract address
Every other check is wasted on the wrong token, so this one comes first.
Test the sell side
A token you cannot sell has no exit at any price. Look for honeypot signs before anything else about the token.
Read mint, freeze and owner powers
Find out who can still create tokens, freeze accounts, change taxes or replace the contract.
Check the liquidity lock and pool size
See whether the money in the pool can be withdrawn, and how deep the pool is next to the token’s value.
Look at holders, creator and age
Check how concentrated the supply is, what else the creator has launched, and how much trading history there is to read.
How DegenPass checks a token
DegenPass by Byte Exchange runs these checks on DEX tokens across seven networks — Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Solana and Robinhood Chain — and scores each token from 0 to 100, graded Clear, Caution, Serious or Not confirmed yet. Tradable listings are rescored every 30 minutes, and the methodology page explains every part of the score.
Read the trust score methodology
Frequently asked questions
- Which check matters most?
- The contract address comes first, because every other check is wasted on the wrong token. Next comes the sell test, since a token you cannot sell has no exit at any price. The rest tell you how much could go wrong and how fast.
- Do these checks work the same on Solana and EVM networks?
- The questions are the same; the places to look differ. On Solana you read mint and freeze authority on Solscan; on EVM networks you read the owner functions of the verified contract on Etherscan, BscScan or Basescan. Each guide covers both.
- Can a token pass every check and still lose its value?
- Yes. Checks reduce known risks; they do not predict price. A token with a clean contract and a locked pool can still fall if buyers leave. These are measurements, not investment advice.