A polished website means almost nothing.

I would start by checking several areas.

Team

Are the founders identifiable? Do they have relevant technical or business history?

Product

Is there an actual working network, application or protocol, or only a roadmap?

Token utility

Does the token have a real function, or was it mainly created for fundraising and speculation?

Token distribution

Who owns the supply?

Large insider allocations can create significant future selling pressure.

Unlock schedule

When do team, investor and treasury tokens become liquid?

Liquidity

Can meaningful amounts actually be bought or sold without extreme slippage?

On-chain activity

Are there real users, fees and transactions, or mostly incentive farming and bots?

Security

Has the protocol been audited? Has it experienced exploits? Who controls admin keys?

Revenue

If the project claims adoption, does that translate into actual economic activity?

I would also be cautious whenever the marketing relies heavily on phrases such as:

• “guaranteed returns”;
• “risk-free”;
• “next Bitcoin”;
• “institutional partnerships” without evidence;
• aggressive referral rewards.

No checklist eliminates risk, but it can remove a large percentage of obviously weak projects very quickly.

What is the first thing you check when researching a new token?

And what red flag makes you immediately stop researching a project?

“Which crypto should I buy?”

I think the better first question is:

“Which crypto should I understand?”

Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins represent very different investment theses.

Bitcoin

Primarily focused on scarcity, monetary policy, settlement and decentralised ownership.

Ethereum

A programmable blockchain supporting smart contracts, DeFi, tokenization and application infrastructure.

Altcoins

A very broad category that includes everything from major Layer 1 networks to governance tokens, infrastructure projects and highly speculative assets.

The risk profile changes significantly as you move down that list.

A beginner who does not understand:

• token supply;
• market capitalization;
• unlock schedules;
• network activity;
• liquidity;
• project revenue;
• governance;
• smart-contract risk

can easily mistake a cheap token price for a cheap valuation.

A coin trading at $0.10 is not automatically cheaper than Bitcoin at tens of thousands of dollars. Supply matters.

For that reason, I usually think beginners should learn market cap and tokenomics before spending much time searching for “the next 100x coin.”

If you were teaching someone crypto from zero, what would you explain first: Bitcoin, Ethereum, wallets, or market structure?

Would be useful to hear different learning paths from experienced members.

Keeping crypto on an exchange creates counterparty risk.

Using self-custody creates operational risk.

With an exchange, you depend on the company to:

• secure the assets;
• process withdrawals;
• remain solvent;
• protect your account.

With self-custody, you are responsible for:

• private keys;
• seed phrase backups;
• transaction accuracy;
• wallet security;
• avoiding malicious contracts;
• recovering access if a device fails.

Neither option is completely risk-free.

For small amounts, a good exchange with strong 2FA can sometimes be safer than a beginner incorrectly managing a seed phrase.

As holdings grow, the balance usually shifts toward self-custody.

I would personally avoid thinking in terms of a fixed dollar threshold. The better question is whether the user understands how recovery works and can securely store the backup.

When do you think a beginner should move from an exchange to self-custody?

Immediately, after reaching a certain portfolio size, or only after they fully understand wallet recovery?

They are operational mistakes.

Before buying anything, I would separate the process into four basic decisions:

1. Where to buy

Use a reputable exchange with strong security, transparent fees, and proper account protection.

2. How much to buy

Do not start with an amount that would cause financial stress if the market drops 30–50%.

Crypto volatility is normal, especially outside Bitcoin.

3. Where to store it

For a small amount, keeping funds on a reputable exchange may be acceptable temporarily.

For larger or long-term holdings, learning self-custody becomes increasingly important.

4. How to secure access

At minimum:

• unique password;
• authenticator-based 2FA;
• backup codes stored offline;
• no seed phrases in cloud storage;
• never share recovery words with anyone.

The mistake I see most often is beginners focusing entirely on which coin to buy while ignoring custody and security.

A 20% better investment decision does not matter if you lose 100% of the funds through phishing or poor key management.

For experienced users here:

What is the single most important piece of advice you would give someone buying crypto for the first time?

And for beginners: what part of the process feels most confusing right now?