How to Check If a Token Is Safe on Polygon: What I Use Before Trusting Any Project
After creating RizeCoin on Polygon, I learned something most people don’t realize: checking whether a token is safe isn’t complicated, but it does require knowing where to look. The information is all public. The blockchain hides nothing. You just have to know how to read it.
I also learned the hard way what happens when you skip this process. Someone contacted me about promoting RizeCoin. I didn’t run the checks I should have. I got scammed. The tokens were sold immediately after I sent them.
Since then, I run the same checks every time I look at a new token. This guide is that process — using DexScreener and PolygonScan, which are both free and require no account.
No tool does. What these checks do is give you better information to make your own decision. A token can pass every check below and still fail. The goal is to eliminate the obvious red flags before going further.
Step 1 — Start with DexScreener
Go to dexscreener.com and paste the token’s contract address into the search field. If the token is trading on any DEX on Polygon, it will appear here.
DexScreener gives you a real-time view of the token’s trading activity. The first thing you’re looking for is whether the token is actually trading at all — and if so, what that trading looks like.
Liquidity: How much value is locked in the trading pool. Very low liquidity (under $5,000) means the token is easy to manipulate. One large trade can move the price dramatically.
Volume: How much trading has happened in the last 24 hours. Consistent, organic volume looks different from sudden spikes followed by silence.
Price chart: Look at the shape of the chart. A token that launched, pumped vertically within hours, then crashed and never recovered is a familiar pattern. It usually means insiders sold after the pump.
Number of transactions: Are there many small trades, or just a few large ones? A healthy token has a variety of transaction sizes from different wallets.
RizeCoin has low liquidity because it’s a new token I created for testing and community building. I’m showing you this so you understand what low-liquidity looks like — not as a warning sign in itself, but as context. A low-liquidity token isn’t necessarily a scam. It’s just a smaller, newer project. The question is whether the team is honest about that or hiding it.
You can check RizeCoin directly: DexScreener — RizeCoin (RZC)
Step 2 — Check the Liquidity Lock Status
Liquidity lock is one of the most important signals for a new token. Here’s why it matters.
When a token launches, the team typically provides initial liquidity — they pair their token with POL or USDC in a DEX pool so people can trade it. If that liquidity is not locked, the team can remove it at any time. When they do, the price collapses instantly. This is called a rug pull.
On DexScreener, look for a lock icon or “Locked” label near the liquidity figure. This indicates the liquidity has been locked through a third-party service.
You can also check directly on PolygonScan by finding the liquidity pool contract and checking who holds the LP tokens. If they’re held by a lock contract (like Unicrypt or UNCX), the liquidity is locked. If they’re held directly by the team wallet, they can be removed at any time.
An established project with years of history and unlocked liquidity is different from a token that launched two weeks ago with unlocked liquidity. For new tokens specifically, locked liquidity is a basic signal of good faith. No lock means the team can exit at any moment.
Step 3 — Check the Contract on PolygonScan
Go to polygonscan.com and paste the contract address. You’re looking for several things.
Look for a green checkmark near “Contract.” This means the source code has been verified and is publicly readable. You can see exactly what the contract does.
An unverified contract is not automatically a scam. But it means you cannot read what it does. For a new token asking you to invest, an unverified contract is a significant warning.
Click the “Holders” tab. Look at how the token supply is distributed.
One wallet holding 50%+ of the supply is a serious concentration risk. If that wallet sells, the price collapses. A healthier distribution shows many wallets holding smaller percentages.
Check whether the top holders are labeled. “Uniswap V3 Pool” or “Liquidity Lock Contract” as top holders is normal and expected. A single anonymous wallet as the top holder is a different situation.
Look at the earliest transactions after the token launched. Who received tokens first? Were large amounts sent to a few wallets immediately after launch? This is called a pre-mine and it means insiders hold most of the supply before the public can buy.
Also look at whether the deployer wallet still holds tokens. A team that deployed the contract and immediately sent all tokens to a single wallet has a very different risk profile from one where tokens were distributed through a transparent process.
Step 4 — Check the Deployer Wallet
Find the contract deployer address on PolygonScan. This is the wallet that created the token. Click on it and look at its history.
How many other contracts has this wallet deployed? A wallet that has deployed dozens of tokens, many of which no longer have any trading activity, is a red flag.
Does the deployer still hold a large portion of the token supply? Are they actively selling?
Has the deployer interacted with any known scam contracts or mixer services?
Step 5 — Look for Honeypot Signals
A honeypot token is designed so that you can buy it but cannot sell it. The contract has hidden logic that blocks sell transactions. People buy in, can’t get out, and the deployer walks away with the liquidity.
On DexScreener, look at the transaction history. Are there only buy transactions and no sells? That’s an immediate warning sign.
You can also use free tools like honeypot.is — paste the contract address and it will simulate a buy and sell to check whether selling is possible.
Check the sell tax on DexScreener. A buy tax of 5% and a sell tax of 99% is a honeypot structure. Always check both taxes before buying.
Any sell tax above 10% is worth questioning. Above 25% is a serious warning. A token with 0 sell transactions in its history is almost certainly a honeypot — nobody can sell, so nobody has.
Step 6 — Check Social Presence and Claims
This is the softest check but still relevant. Does the project have any verifiable social presence? Is there a website, a Telegram, a Twitter account with real activity?
The question isn’t whether the social presence exists. It’s whether it’s consistent with what the token claims to be. A token claiming to have 50,000 community members with a Twitter account that has 200 followers and no engagement is a contradiction worth noting.
The person who scammed me had a social presence. They had a Telegram group. They had followers. None of that protected me because I didn’t check what mattered — I didn’t require results before sending tokens.
Social presence can be faked or bought. What can’t be faked is on-chain behavior. The blockchain showed me exactly what happened: tokens received, moved to a secondary wallet, sold immediately. That’s why I start with the on-chain checks now, not the social ones.
Read the full story here: How to Spot and Fight Crypto Scams on Polygon
The Complete Checklist
☐ DexScreener: Is there real liquidity and organic trading volume?
☐ DexScreener: Does the price chart show a natural pattern or an obvious pump and dump?
☐ DexScreener: Is the sell tax reasonable (under 5% for legitimate projects)?
☐ DexScreener: Are there both buy and sell transactions?
☐ PolygonScan: Is the contract verified?
☐ PolygonScan: Is liquidity locked, or can the team remove it?
☐ PolygonScan: Is the token supply reasonably distributed, or does one wallet hold most of it?
☐ PolygonScan: Does the deployer wallet have a suspicious history?
☐ Honeypot check: Can the token actually be sold?
☐ Social: Does the project’s claimed size match its actual verifiable presence?
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