Written by the Tokenomics.net team
Mar 1, 2025
Want to avoid losing money in crypto? Start by spotting these 5 tokenomics red flags:
Uncontrolled Token Supply: No supply cap or poor token management leads to inflation and price drops. Example: Dogecoin’s 5% annual inflation.
No Clear Token Purpose: Tokens without real utility often fail. Example: SillyDoge's hype-fueled crash in 2023.
Uneven Token Distribution: When a few wallets control most tokens, price manipulation becomes a risk. Example: $SPORE's 51% supply concentration.
Unsustainable Rewards: Unrealistic yields often signal instability. Example: Terra's 20% yield collapse in 2022.
Overly Complex Economics: Confusing tokenomics may hide flaws. Example: Aptos's unclear vesting schedules in 2023.
Quick Comparison Table
Takeaway: Always check token supply, purpose, distribution, rewards, and simplicity before investing. These factors directly impact a project's stability and your investments.
9 Crypto Red Flags: Guide to Find the Best Projects and Avoid Scams
1. Token Supply Issues
Token supply problems are a major warning sign for cryptocurrency investments. When a project has no supply cap or poorly managed token distribution, it can dilute value and hurt investor returns.
Take Dogecoin, for example. Its unlimited supply model leads to about 5% inflation every year. This constant creation of new tokens puts downward pressure on prices, making long-term growth difficult.
Different token supply models can have vastly different effects on the market. Here's a comparison:
Token burning is one way to combat inflation. Binance Coin (BNB) is a good example, burning about $10 million worth of tokens every quarter. Similarly, Stellar took a bold step in 2019 by burning 55 billion XLM tokens, which helped improve its market position.
"When tokens can be created out of thin air, they risk becoming as commonplace as grains of sand on a beach – plentiful, but not particularly valuable." - Black Tokenomics
To spot potential issues with token supply, investors should focus on:
Supply Cap: Does the token have a maximum supply limit?
Emission Schedule: How and when are new tokens released?
Burn Mechanisms: Are there effective methods for reducing supply?
Avalanche (AVAX) is an example of a well-thought-out model. It has a maximum supply cap of 720 million tokens and burns tokens with every transaction. On the other hand, projects lacking clear supply controls may face inflation and price instability, signaling deeper economic problems.
2. Missing Token Purpose
When it comes to tokens, having a clear purpose is crucial for long-term success. Without it, a token risks becoming irrelevant or purely speculative.
Take the case of SillyDoge in Q4 2023. Its price skyrocketed from $0.0001 to $0.002, only to crash by 90% once the initial hype wore off. Many investors faced steep losses, highlighting the dangers of a token lacking real-world utility.
Here’s a quick breakdown of token types and how they can serve specific purposes:
"The very first step in designing tokenomics is to define the purpose and utility of your native token. What role will it play within your ecosystem? Is it a medium of exchange, a store of value, or a governance token? Having a clear, well-defined purpose for your token is essential for building trust and attracting users and investors." – Godswill Tonye
To assess whether a token has real utility, think about these key considerations:
Ecosystem Integration: Does the token serve an essential function in the project, beyond just being tradable?
Demand Creation: Are there mechanisms in place to ensure consistent demand for the token?
Long-term Viability: Is the token designed to support sustainable growth, or is it just a tool for quick price spikes?
Tokens that lack genuine use cases often rely on celebrity endorsements or flashy marketing to attract attention. However, these tactics can mask the absence of real utility. A well-thought-out token should encourage platform adoption through practical features like governance rights, staking options, or enabling liquidity in decentralized exchanges. Without these, tokens risk becoming speculative assets, prone to manipulation and sudden crashes. A strong utility is key to ensuring lasting growth and stability.
3. Poor Token Distribution
When most tokens are concentrated in a few wallets, it increases risks for investors and undermines decentralization. Several projects highlight this issue with concerning examples.
Take the $SPORE token, for instance. Its top clusters hold 51% of the supply, with one cluster alone controlling 40%. This creates opportunities for price manipulation and governance control.
Here’s a breakdown of how some projects handle token distribution:
When insiders control over 50% of tokens, they can overpower community voting and distort governance. Projects like Ethereum and Solana offer better examples: Ethereum distributed 83.47% through public sales, while Solana allocated 38% via community rewards and airdrops.
To minimize risks tied to token distribution, consider these steps:
Use blockchain explorers to verify token allocation.
Check for vesting schedules that prevent early sell-offs.
Ensure major holders are identifiable and accountable.
"The very first step in designing tokenomics is to define the purpose and utility of your native token. What role will it play within your ecosystem? Is it a medium of exchange, a store of value, or a governance token? Having a clear, well-defined purpose for your token is essential for building trust and attracting users and investors." – Godswill Tonye
A real-world example of distribution concerns is the HIVE community’s 2020 fork from Steem. They eliminated the founder’s 20% allocation, proving how distribution issues can shape a project’s future. Today, many projects aim for more balanced approaches, often setting aside 6% for general community distribution and 5% for community rewards. Careful analysis of token distribution is essential to safeguard investor interests and uphold decentralization.
4. Broken Reward Systems
When reward systems are flawed, they often point to unstable tokenomics. A well-known example is the collapse of Terra's UST in 2022. Its Anchor Protocol offered nearly 20% yield on stablecoin deposits, initially attracting significant capital. However, this unsustainable model eventually led to a dramatic failure, highlighting the importance of aligning incentives with real network activity and value creation.
Here's a look at how different reward models have fared:
Key warning signs to watch for include:
Unrealistic yields, such as returns exceeding 1,000% APY
Token holding requirements that limit liquidity
Rewards that don’t align with actual economic activity
A good example of sustainable tokenomics is Ethereum’s EIP-1559. By burning a portion of transaction fees, it ties rewards directly to network usage, creating a more balanced model.
"Tokenomics models that hinge on unsustainable returns inevitably fail. Sustainable projects need to offer incentives that scale with real economic activity, not speculative mania." - Stewart Southey, Forbes Digital Assets
For a reward system to be sustainable, it should connect rewards to value creation through clear emission schedules, incentive caps, and emergency reserves to manage inflation. Stability reserves and adaptive incentives - adjusting based on market conditions - can also strengthen long-term viability.
The BitConnect collapse is a cautionary tale. Promising 40% monthly returns through a fake trading bot, it ended in massive losses when regulators intervened.
5. Hard-to-Understand Economics
Overly complicated tokenomics can often hide deeper problems in cryptocurrency projects. When token systems are unnecessarily intricate, it may be a deliberate attempt to disguise flaws or mislead potential investors.
Take January 2023's Aptos as an example. Despite an impressive 470% price increase, the project came under fire for its unclear token distribution model. With 1 billion tokens initially allocated to community (51.02%), core contributors (19%), foundation (16.50%), and investors (13.48%), the lack of clarity around vesting schedules caused confusion about selling intentions. This lack of transparency raised red flags about the project's overall openness.
Some common signs of overly complex tokenomics include:
A notorious case is BitConnect, which used complexity to obscure what regulators later revealed to be a fraudulent scheme, leading to its collapse in January 2018.
"Tokenomics turn predatory when project insiders use supply controls to artificially drive demand and take profits at the expense of others." - John Gilbert, Blockworks
To make informed decisions, focus on clear and straightforward token design. Here are a few key factors to examine:
Token Purpose: Does the token have a clear role within the ecosystem?
Distribution Model: Are the allocation and vesting schedules transparent?
Governance Structure: Is the decision-making process easy to understand?
Economic Controls: Are supply management mechanisms simple and verifiable?
Legitimate projects tend to present their tokenomics in a clear and accessible way. Tools like Etherscan can help verify token allocations and distribution processes. If a project's tokenomics seem overly complicated, it could be a sign of poor design - or worse, an attempt to hide problematic aspects.
For instance, Binance Coin (BNB) stands out as a project with clear utility and straightforward mechanisms, such as its quarterly 20% token burn, which adds transparency and builds investor trust.
Conclusion
Tokenomics demand close examination to safeguard investments and assess long-term viability. The five warning signs outlined earlier highlight common pitfalls where projects can stumble, potentially leading to financial losses. Here's a quick recap of those critical areas and how to evaluate them effectively:
Take Binance Coin (BNB) as a solid example: its transparent quarterly token burn policy and clear utility within the Binance ecosystem set a high standard for effective tokenomics. In contrast, projects lacking clarity or sustainable frameworks often struggle to gain trust.
To apply these principles, focus on the following steps:
Dive into research: Investigate project documents, team backgrounds, and community discussions.
Verify claims: Use tools like Rugdoc.io and CoinMarketCap for cross-checking data.
Compare frameworks: Benchmark against established models like Bitcoin's fixed cap or Ethereum's controlled growth.
Track updates: Stay informed on changes to token mechanics or distribution plans.
Manage risk: Only invest amounts you're prepared to lose.
A skeptical, detail-oriented approach is key. As the crypto landscape evolves and new tokens enter the market, these warning signs serve as valuable tools for evaluating potential investments. Strong tokenomics should support a project's goals while ensuring fairness for all investors.
